The Indian authorities said the major power outage in Mumbai last month could have been caused by hackers.
The power outage occurred in mid-October and affected the Mumbai metropolitan area, causing significant disruption to traffic control systems and trains. It took two hours to restore power for basic services only, and up to 12 hours in some affected areas.
According to the Mumbai Mirror news agency, the cyber police unit has found evidence that the incident may have been triggered by a cyber attack. Investigators have identified several suspicious authorizations on servers connected to power supply companies. Presumably, manipulations with these servers could cause systems to malfunction. The criminals’ activity has been traced back to several countries in South Asia, and investigators are currently trying to determine if it was part of a coordinated cyberattack.
Investigators also found malware in the control center, which allegedly caused the crash, according to sources in India Today. Load sharing centers are responsible for maintaining the grid, monitoring grid operation, and planning and dispatching electricity.