As India and China disengage from frontline positions in Pangong Tso, recent imagery twitted by d-atis, (@detresfa_) a freelance OSINT Analyst, on Sun of the Gogra-Hot spring’s area identifies the next challenge for both militaries where deployments have remained unchanged since late 2020. As per the image, the location of the Indian forces, located below “Y” junction, 15 km from the location of Chinses troops in Hot Spring and huge deployment with infrastructures of Chinese troops in Galwan.   

China Appears to Warn India: Push Too Hard and the Lights Could Go Out-NYT

• As border skirmishes increased last year, malware began to flow into the Indian electric grid, a new study shows, and a blackout hit Mumbai. It now looks like a warning.
• Four months after Gwalan Clash and more than 1,500 miles away in Mumbai, India, trains shut down and the stock market closed as the power went out in a city of 20 million people.
• Hospitals had to switch to emergency generators to keep ventilators running amid a coronavirus outbreak that was among India’s worst.
• Now, a new study lends weight to the idea that those two events may well have been connected – as part of a broad Chinese cyber-campaign against India’s power grid, timed to send a message that if India pressed its claims too hard, the lights could go out across the country.
• The flow of malware was pieced together by Recorded Future, a Somerville, Mass., company that studies the use of the internet by state actors.
• It found that most of the malware was never activated.
• And because Recorded Future could not get inside India’s power systems, it could not examine the details of the code itself, which was placed in strategic power-distribution systems across the country.
• Four months later, as tensions rose between the two countries on the border, Chinese hackers unleashed a swarm of 40,300 hacking attempts on India’s technology and banking infrastructure in just 5 days.
• While it has notified Indian authorities, so far they are not reporting what they have found.
• Chinese firms supply equipment for 78% per cent of India’s solar power project market, till June last year.
• India will not allow import of power equipment from China and Pakistan, power minister R K Singh announced July 3^rd last year, citing recent transgression in border areas and cyber security threats. In 2018-19, we imported Rs 71 K crore power equipment of which Rs 21 K crore are Chinese.
• All 12 organizations would qualify as critical infrastructure, according to the Indian National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre’s (NCIIPC) definition.
• The 12 organizations targeted by Red Echo were Power System Operation Corporation Limited, NTPC Limited, NTPC’s Kudgi power plant, Western Regional Load Dispatch Centre, Southern Regional Load Dispatch Centre, North Eastern Regional Load Dispatch Centre, Eastern Regional Load Dispatch Centre, Telangana State Load Dispatch Centre, Delhi State Load Dispatch Centre, the DTL Tikri Kalan (Mundka) sub-station of Delhi Transco Ltd, VO Chidambaranar Port and Mumbai Port Trust.

Power Ministry rejected the claim-ANI

• An email was received from CERT-In on 19^th Nov, 2020 on the threat of malware called Shadow Pad at some control centers of POSOCO. Accordingly, action has been taken to address these threats.
• NCIIPC informed through mail on Feb 12 about threat by Red Echo through malware Shadow Pad that “Chinese state-sponsored threat Actor group known as Red Echo is targeting Indian Power sector’s Regional Load Dispatch Centers along with State Load Dispatch Centers”, Ministry said.
• All IPs and domains listed in NCIIPC mail have been blocked in firewall at all control centers. Log of firewall is being monitored for any connection attempt towards listed IPs & domains. Additionally, all systems in control centers were scanned & cleaned by antivirus, Ministry added.
• Interestingly, Report linking Chinese cyber-attack to Mumbai power outage is true, claimed Maharashtra Cabinet minister of power from INC, Nitin Raut, -IT
• The Maha cyber department had initially suspected that a malware attack could be responsible for Mumbai’s power outage in Oct last year, which stopped trains and shut down hospitals.

To counter China, Army to mark ‘upheld areas’ with expeditions, studies

• The Army is firmly pushing for mountaineering expeditions as well as research studies to publicize and consolidate India’s legitimate territorial claims in areas along the northern borders to counter the salami-slicing tactics of an expansionist China.
• For starters, the Army is launching a major skiing expedition from the crucial Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand, which will cover a distance of around 1,500km after being flagged off on Mar 3.
• Similarly, India’s territorial claims, both along the line of actual control (LAC) and the international boundary (IB), need to be assiduously publicized by promoting research studies by scholars and their publication in national and international journals.
• “This will also involve documentation, geotagging of locations and evidence-creation,” said the officer.