Mumbai: Cyber expert and lawyer Prashant Mali says the possibility of a cyber attack on India's power systems cannot be ruled out. This is because power equipment imported from China have been installed in powerhouses in India.
His comments come over speculation that a power outage across Mumbai city in October last year may have been the result of a cyberattack by Chinese players.
He added that "China may have already installed malicious software like malware in its hardware which can be operated from China. So we have to find out."
Speaking on the matter, another cyber expert Shailendra Devlankar says that China is using software like its own malware in the tools used in India's critical infrastructure imported from China.
Devlankar, an international affairs scholar, also said that China was using it for political gain.
Read: Governments spar over Mumbai power blackout
Maharashtra's Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Monday said that he suspected a cyber attack in the Mumbai power blackout. But the Indian government has insisted human error was behind the outage.
He added that "Cyber-attack issue is not just confined to Mumbai but it could spread across the country. We should not politicise this issue. I have spoken to Union Minister RK Singh about this. He has sought details about it and said that we should remain alert."
Read: Maharashtra energy minister briefs media on power outage 'attack' report
Read: Cyberattack: J&K power department becomes ransomware's first target
