The safety of the country’s largest nuclear power plant is a concern. Ransomware group World Leaks has posted thousands of secret files related to Tamil Nadu’s Kudankulam nuclear power plant on the dark web. The leaked files include blueprints for various parts of the nuclear project, designs of components, suppliers and insurance.
World Leaks claimed that all the information was obtained by hacking the servers of industrialist Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group. They are one of the contractors for nuclear projects. A total of 858,000 files of Reliance were leaked. This includes 19,000 files of the most ‘sensitive’ related to Kudankulam. News agency Reuters reported this news. India’s top cyber security firm Chart-In has already launched an investigation, Reuters reported, citing a source.
Kudankulam is the largest of India’s seven nuclear power plants. The Modi government is planning to further expand the country’s nuclear power generation. But the report caused a stir. Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group told Reuters the files were “partially leaked”. Data leaked from servers operated by third-party data center service provider Yota. The entire incident has been reported to the government.
Nicholas Roth, senior director of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, said the information leak could pose a “serious problem” to nuclear plant security. The Reliance Group has not revealed exactly what information was leaked. Reliance Infrastructure won the design and construction contract for the third and fourth units at Kudankulam in 2018. Two units are scheduled to be commissioned by 2027. It will generate a total of 2,000 MW of electricity. However, based on the documents obtained, Reuters claimed that the data dates back to 2016 and that the files leaked on the World Leaks website contain no information about the key provisions of the Kudankulam nuclear deal.
The plant’s nuclear reactors were supplied by Russia’s state-owned Rosatom. But the leaked files include the so-called design of the ventilation and cooling system of the third and fourth units under construction, the complete floor layout of the ‘common control room’. The files include supplier proposals, a list of approved suppliers, minutes of the 2024 joint inspection meeting between Nuclear Power Corporation and Reliance, as well as pictures of the equipment.
Another document contains information about insurance policies of Reliance Infrastructure and Nuclear Power Corporation. According to the documents, the Reliance Group will receive $112 million in compensation if the third and fourth units are hit by terrorists.
World Leaks has previously targeted Nike and the Tata Group. They usually steal information from various corporate organizations. When companies refuse to pay, they post the stolen information on their websites. The WorldLeaks website can only be accessed through a special browser. Ransomware group Reliance did not respond to Reuters’ queries about the data leak. Rajesh Birraghavan, chairman of Atomic Energy Corporation, Chart-In and the Indian government also did not respond.
