'Not successful': Energy Minister asserts India foiled attempt of Chinese hackers to disrupt Ladakh's power grid

New Delhi, April 7: A report started to surface that Chinese state-sponsored hackers were attempting to target the Indian power sector near Ladakh in recent months for collecting intelligence information, according to a report by US-based cyber security company Recorded Future. Responding to these reports, Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy RK Singh on Thursday said that the attempts made by Chinese hackers to target electricity distribution centres near Ladakh were successfully blocked.

 

 

As many as two attempts of cyberattack targeting the electricity distribution in the Union Territory were made by the Chinese hackers. Reacting to media reports claiming a cyber attack on the power grid near Ladakh between August and March, Singh said, "Two attempts by Chinese hackers were made to target electricity distribution centres near Ladakh but were not successful..."

 

 

According to the US report, released on Wednesday, the hackers had focused on Indian electricity dispatch centres near Ladakh, which could be a flashpoint following a military standoff between the two countries in the region. The Minister further said that the defence system has been strengthened to counter cyber attacks. "We have already strengthened our defence system to counter such cyber attacks," he said.

 

"We believe this is instead likely intended to enable information-gathering surrounding critical infrastructure and/or pre-positioning for future activity," the US report said. Additionally, the hackers compromised an Indian national emergency response system and a subsidiary of a multinational logistics company, the report stated. "In addition to the targeting of power grid assets, we also identified the compromise of a national emergency response system and the Indian subsidiary of a multinational logistics company by the same threat activity group," it said.

 

The hacking group, named TAG-38, has used ShadowPad malware, which is a kind of malicious software that steals data from a victim computer and automatically communicates with the computer servers at the hacker's end.

 

 

The malware was earlier associated with China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Ministry of State Security, as per Recorded Future. China has constantly refuted its involvement in malicious cyber activity despite several accusations that it sponsors criminal contract hackers. Earlier in February 2021, a China-linked threat activity group, RedEcho, targeted one of the load dispatch centres.

 

Meanwhile, the top brass of the Indian Army and Air Force have been assessing the preparedness and infrastructure requirements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) as the militaries of both India and China continue to remain in a standoff position in eastern Ladakh.

 

 

India has made several changes in its deployments post aggression shown by Chinese troops in April-May 2020. India and China have been talking to each other at both military and diplomatic levels to address the issues but so far they have not been able to do so mainly because of Chinese reluctance. In recent talks to address the Patroling Point 15 friction, they proposed a solution that was not acceptable to the Indian side.

Indian security establishment led by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval has been of the view that the issue would be resolved only if the Chinese did complete disengagement and went back to pre April 2020 positions. The Indian side has strengthened its deployments manifold all along the LAC.