Chennai, October 28: Amid reports of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu being attacked by cyber hackers, reports arrived of Twitter that infamous North Korean hacker group -- Lazarus -- had gained administrative access to some of the computers at KKNPP. Following these netizens in India went berserk and wanted to know the reality.
Soon social media users went to inquire about the details, after a Twitter user on October 28 pointed towards data dumps made on VirusTotal. This is a website which tracks the activities of various viruses that infect systems worldwide. Following this, the cybersecurity researchers tried to track the user named as "KKNPP\\administrator". Digging more into the details, researchers found out the system was attacked using a variant of the virus 'DTRACK', which has been developed by Lazarus. Fact Check: Tata Salt Viral Video Being Circulated Online Claims Packaging Done Under Unhygienic Conditions is FAKE!
Here are the tweets:
So, it's public now. Domain controller-level access at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant. The government was notified way back. Extremely mission-critical targets were hit. https://t.co/rFaTeOsZrw pic.twitter.com/OMVvMwizSi
— Pukhraj Singh (@RungRage) October 28, 2019
Plausible malware in the Kudankulam nuclear power plant? Our central government which prides itself on national security is comfortably sleeping. https://t.co/PC1NqV17Gg
— Satish (@Nifty_Footwork) October 29, 2019
Seems to be a cyber attack on Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant's IT. How serious is this? https://t.co/jJ7RzF5Fsy
— Krishnan (@cvkrishnan) October 28, 2019
However, with things blowing out of proportion, KKNPP officials released a statement. They said that KKNPP and other Indian Nuclear Power Plants Control Systems are stand-alone and not connected to outside cyber network and Internet. The official stated, "This is to clarify Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) and other Indian Nuclear Power Plants Control Systems are stand-alone and not connected to outside cyber network and Internet. Any cyberattack on the Nuclear Power Plant Control System is not possible. Presently, KKNPP Unit-1 and 2 are operating at 1000 MWe and 600 MWe respectively without any operational or safety concerns."
Here's the tweet that report is fake:
Kudankulam nuclear plant denies cyber attack. Says systems are standalone. pic.twitter.com/szgJUq006t
— priyankathirumurthy (@priyankathiru) October 29, 2019
It is to be known that KKNPP is located off the Bay of Bengal in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district and said both the reactors were functional at the moment.
Fact check
Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project Faces Cyber Attacked by North Korean Hackers
The report is fake as KKNPP had released a statement claiming that Indian Nuclear Power Plants Control Systems are stand-alone and not connected to outside cyber network and Internet.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 29, 2019 07:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).