**No Safety Information Compromised in Kudankulam Nuclear Plant Data Breach, Operator Asserts**
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), which operates India’s largest nuclear power facility, the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, has issued a statement denying that any critical safety or security information was compromised in a recent data breach. The breach, reported by the ransomware group World Leaks, involved a substantial cache of documents, but NPCIL clarified that the exposed data pertains to common service facilities rather than the nuclear operations of the plant itself.
According to NPCIL, the leaked information does not relate to any systems or information concerning nuclear safety or security. The corporation described the facilities involved as conventional, akin to those found in thermal power plants and other industrial processes. This assertion aims to reassure the public and stakeholders about the integrity of the plant's core operational systems.
The incident came to light when World Leaks posted approximately 19,000 files, amounting to 14.3 gigabytes, on the dark web. These files reportedly included blueprints and details about suppliers tied to the Kudankulam facility. The plant, located in Tamil Nadu, is being developed in partnership with Russia's state-owned nuclear energy corporation, Rosatom. Currently, two of its six planned pressurized water reactors are operational, each with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts.
The breach is said to have originated from a contract awarded to the Reliance Group, led by Indian businessman Anil Ambani, in 2018. This contract involves the construction of various systems for the power plant, excluding the nuclear components. Following the data leak, Reliance Group confirmed a "partial breach" of its data hosted on a server managed by Yotta, a third-party data center service provider. The company has notified the government about the incident.
Yotta has stated that it managed to thwart the execution of suspected ransomware on May 29, prior to the breach becoming public knowledge. However, security experts have raised concerns regarding the potential implications of the data leak. Nickolas Roth, a senior director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, warned that the breach could pose a serious risk to the safety of the plant, although the authenticity of the documents shared on the dark web has not been verified by independent sources.
The dark web, where the data was posted, is a part of the internet that is not indexed by traditional search engines and requires specialized software to access. World Leaks is known for releasing stolen corporate data when victims refuse to comply with ransom demands. In a previous incident, the group published sensitive files from Tata Group after the conglomerate did not meet a $1.5 million ransom request.
This breach is not the first cybersecurity incident involving the Kudankulam plant. In 2019, malware associated with a North Korean hacker group was discovered on the plant's administrative network, raising alarms about the cybersecurity measures in place at critical infrastructure sites.
As the situation develops, NPCIL continues to emphasize that the integrity of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant's safety and security systems remains intact, and it is working closely with relevant authorities to address the breach and mitigate any potential risks.