China-Sponsored Hackers Continue To Attack India’s Power Grid: Report

Earlier Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and Maharashtra Cyber agency had stated that the power outage that took place in Mumbai on October 12, 2020, was an attempted "Cyber Sabotage".

Representative Photo: Getty Images

New Delhi: Chinese state-sponsored hackers are still trying to get into the network system of an Indian port despite authorities blocking attempts to penetrate the power sector, US firm that alerted officials reported.

Chief operating officer Stuart Solomon revealed that Recorded Future could spot a 'handshake' which is an exchange of traffic between a China-linked group and an Indian maritime port.

The firm dubbed this group as 'RedEcho' and reported that it targeted as many as 10 entities under India’s power grid along with 2 maritime ports when the company first notified India’s Computer Emergency Response Team on February 10. A lot of these connections were operational as recently as February 28.

"There’s still an active connection between the attacker and the attackee," Solomon said. "It’s still happening," he added referring to the port.

Earlier Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and Maharashtra Cyber agency stated that the power outage that took place in Mumbai on October 12, 2020, was an attempted "Cyber Sabotage".

While speaking to ABP News, Minister of State Power and New & Renewable Energy R K Singh ruled out China's involvement.

“China had no role to play in the power outage in Mumbai on October 12 last year. China may have a hand in the other cyber-attacks but we cannot say this until we have full evidence,” he said. "We are aware that our (India) power grids are vulnerable and can be prone to cyberattacks," he added.