301: A Cyber Attack On India’s Nuclear Plants Could Happen - Here’s Why

The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu the subject of a cyber attack earlier this year. The date is 30 October. Two days before, a few Twitter users had put out tweets saying that someone had gained domain-controller level access at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant. As the tweets gained speed and spread further, the power plant issued an official statement that said, “Any attack on the Nuclear Power Plant Control System is not possible.” That was on 29 October. On 30 October, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India in an official press release, turned this statement around, and confirmed the worst….That yes, there indeed had been an attack on the plant’s systems. How could someone gain access to the plant’s system? What could they do with this access? And if compromised again, could the worst case scenario….a nuclear disaster happen? I’m joined today by Vakasha Sachdev and Sushovan Sircar, they’re The Quint’s Legal and Tech and Policy experts. Read The Quint's coverage on this story here (https://www.thequint.com/news/india/kudankulam-nuclear-power-plant-malware-attack-correct-confirms-npcil) and here (https://www.thequint.com/news/india/possible-cyber-attack-malware-kudankulam-nuclear-power-plant-official-denies) . Guests: Sushovan Sircar, Tech & Policy Correspondent, The Quint               Vakasha Sachdev, Legal Editor, The Quint Host:     Vishnu Gopinath