Indian authorities are investigating a reported cybersecurity incident after a ransomware group claimed to have released thousands of files allegedly connected to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, the country’s largest nuclear energy facility, according to reports
While officials have not confirmed the authenticity of the leaked material, the incident has renewed concerns about cybersecurity at critical infrastructure projects.
The cybercriminal group known as World Leaks said it has published more than 19,000 files on the dark web. The documents are said to be part of a much larger dataset of roughly 858,000 files allegedly taken from Reliance Group, a contractor involved in the Kudankulam project. Although Reuters examined samples of the material, it reported that it was unable to independently verify whether the documents are genuine.
Reliance Group confirmed that a limited data breach affected one of its servers hosted by Indian data center provider Yotta. The company said the incident had been reported to the Indian government but did not identify the specific information that may have been accessed.
Yotta stated that it detected suspicious activity targeting a Reliance Infrastructure server on May 29 and said an attempted ransomware attack was blocked before it could be executed. The company later became aware of claims by external threat actors that they had obtained company data and said it is cooperating with the ongoing investigation.
According to reports, the leaked files appear to contain engineering plans for ventilation and cooling systems, control room layouts, equipment inspection records, supplier and vendor information, project meeting documents, and insurance records. Most of the material is reportedly related to Units 3 and 4 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, which remain under construction and are scheduled to begin operations by 2027.
Experts cautioned that even if the plant’s reactor systems were not directly affected, the exposure of technical and operational documents could still present security challenges by providing sensitive information about the facility’s infrastructure and supply chain.
