Tata Power Company Limited in India has an installed and managed electricity generation capacity of 13,974 MW, which is the highest in the country. The company on 14 October 2022, has itself reported that it had a cyberattack on its IT infrastructure impacting some of its IT systems. This has been reported from the desk/office of BSE from the Mumbai-headquartered.
The company also reported that “all critical operational systems are functioning; however, as a measure of abundant precaution, restricted access and preventive checks have been put in place for employee and customer facing portals and touch points”.
It was only last month (September 2022) that the Union Power Minister R.K. Singh had said that India is under the constant threat of Cyber Attacks on its Critical Infrastructure and that India’s power network will soon be made more future-ready and will be augmented with additional infrastructure and processes to cater for cyberattacks. He also said that provisions will be made for routine inspections with a strategic Crisis Management Plan and Incident Response methodology through the Electricity Amendment Bill.
Tata Power did not share any further specifics on the matter. No details on the nature of the attack and its impact on the organization, and details as to whether any data was stolen, has been divulged. As stated in the Statement by the representative, “The Company has taken steps to retrieve and restore the systems. All critical operational systems are functioning.”
In the recent past, Cyber Secure India, had also reported threat to the ‘Indian Cyber Space’ from State and Non-State Actors form China, with an aim to cause disruption in the Critical Infrastructure/ Critical Information Infrastructure, especially those in the Energy Sector.
Recorded Future a U.S.-based cybersecurity company in April reported, alleged Chinese state-sponsored hackers had attempted through Cyber Attack targeting the Indian power sector in a long-term project. During this period, and just after these reports were circulated in the media, Shri Arindam Bagchi the spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs commented that no such concern on this issue was raised with China. Subsequently, in media report, the China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian reportedly refuted the allegation that was levied by Recorded Future.