Massive Data Breach Exposes Sensitive Files of India's Kudankulam Nuclear Plant
A substantial data breach has compromised approximately 19,000 sensitive files associated with the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) in India. The leaked documents primarily pertain to Units 3 and 4 of the 2,400 MW facility, which is still under construction and expected to be operational by 2027. The breach was traced back to a server managed by Yotta, a third-party data center provider, which detected unusual activity on a server owned by Reliance Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Reliance Group. The cybercriminal group World Leaks, known for extorting victims by stealing sensitive data, published the files after their ransom demands were ignored.
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and the central cybersecurity agency, CERT-In, are currently investigating the breach. They have indicated that the exposed documents do not seem to affect the core nuclear reactor systems, which are engineered separately by Russia's state-owned Rosatom. However, security experts from the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) have raised concerns that the leaked data could allow malicious actors to identify vulnerabilities in support systems and target critical links within the plant's supply chain.
This incident marks the second cyber event associated with the KKNPP. In 2019, the facility experienced a malware infection that impacted its administrative network, although operational controls and instrumentation systems were kept isolated from the internet. Additionally, this breach is the second attack by World Leaks on an Indian company, following a recent incident involving Tata Electronics, a key supplier for Apple and Tesla. In that case, World Leaks published over 630 GB of stolen data, including sensitive supply chain information, after allegedly demanding a $1.5 million ransom. Tata Electronics confirmed the breach but stated that its manufacturing operations remained unaffected. Both the Indian government and Apple have initiated forensic investigations into the extent of the data exposure.
