Days after a report of a suspected China-based cyber-attack in the 2020 power outage in Mumbai, the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In) published an alert that helped deflect a similar hacking attempt of the power systems at Telangana’s TS Transco and TS Genco supposedly by the same Chinese hacker group. (TS Transco and TS Genco run the power services in the state).
The malware which was doubted to belong to China, targeted 40 substations in Telangana state, The Times of India quoted a trusted source of the CERT-In, but the attack was successfully prevented by the government agencies of the state. It is being stated that the Chinese hacker groups were trying to communicate with TSLDC systems in Telengana and take control over the server so that disruption can be made successful.
The Chinese hackers were trying to steal data and disrupt the power supply in Telangana. GENCO as a precautionary measure subsequently blocked the unidentified IP addresses and changed the user credentials of all officials operating remotely.
“Telangana’s State Load Dispatch Centre was being ventured to contact by the Chinese hacker groups who tried to disrupt the systems. The state power services have been directed and ordered to take up all the required safety and protection measures,”
stated Telangana Transco and Genco chairman and managing director D Prabhakar Rao.
The cyber-attack attempt on Telengana finds special significance in light of a US-based report that the Mumbai blackout in 2020 was caused by a Chinese hacker group.
Chinese Hackers attacked Mumbai:
On October 12th, 2020, a grid collapse in Mumbai resulted in a massive power interruption, stopping the electric trains on tracks, thwarting those working from home amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and hitting the Maharastra economy very hard.
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