Chinese hackers continue to targeting India’s power grid
We all are well aware about the fact that, Cyber warfare and social Media disinformation campaigns have been central to china’s purpose of achieving dictatorial deliberation control in its pursuit of global supremacy. Cyber Offensive power and propaganda have been deep-rooted in China’s approach to beat its rivals. Recently, India’s Power grid firm becomes the target of Chinese hacking group TAG-38.
The Research report of Insikt exposed a hacking campaign operated by Chinese state-sponsored threat activity group targeting the Indian Power Grid Organisation; most of the cyber attacks intricate the ShadowPad backdoor. The hacking activity was recognized through a combination of an extensive automated network traffic analytics and expert analysis.
From past 18 years Indian region had been continued targeting by Chinese hackers. There are several instances that justify the statement. In February, 2021 China-linked RedEcho ‘a sophisticated’ hacking group besieged 10 Indian entities in the power Sector and two in the maritime sector. The attack “exclusively” targets the state- owned NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation), India’s largest energy company. The hackers used a modular backdoor named ShadowPad for the cyber attack. The cyber attacks, increased as tensions between India and China rose in the wake of Galwan Valley clash.
In 2021, another news came in limelight regarding the Chinese cyber espionage group targeted victims from India. The Security researchers reported that APT 41 (Chinese state-sponsored cyber threat group) engaged in espionage and financially motivated criminal activities, the Chinese threat group targeted organizations like travel, telecommunication, healthcare, news, and education. It was found out that Chinese espionage groups used Phishing emails to gain access to their victims.
In order to protect its nation and escalate its offensive capabilities, India too has launched various cyber attacks against the Chinese Nation. According to the report of Forcepoint security labs, In December 2015 a cyber campaign was launched by Indian-based cyber Intelligence firm Phronesis that targeted Chinese nationals of different industries and administrative agencies in Southern Asia. It was found out that it was a state-sponsored cyber attack in which 170 malicious documents and 4 distinct malware Families were used.
In 2019, the Anomali Threat Research team reported another Phishing campaign by Indian based BITTER APT group deploying cyber attacks against the People’s Republic of China Government Agencies. The Phishing attacks leverage spoof sites designed to steal email credentials from target victims within the administration of China.
In the end, we can say that Indian cyber Intelligence firms are too emerging itself as a superpower in the cyber offensive domain, As Indian nation is competing to the fullest to defeat its rival Nation China.
