Mumbai: A massive cybersecurity issue has hit India’s rapidly growing electronics manufacturing ecosystem. Tata Electronics, the company set up to assemble smartphones and electronics in India, has confirmed that it fell victim to a significant cybersecurity incident where almost 630GB or about 2,04,300 files of supplier specifications and manufacturing documents from Tesla and Apple have turned up on a hacker’s forum. Though various media outlets have claimed access to the documents, the authenticity, provenance and completeness of the data hasn’t been independently verified.
“A few weeks ago, Tata Electronics identified a cybersecurity incident on some of our systems. Our response protocols were deployed immediately, and the incident has had no impact on our operations across businesses, which remain unaffected,” the company admitted in a press statement.
The breach comes at a time when Apple has been actively expanding its supply chain in India as part of the ‘China+1’ strategy, making India one of the world’s leading iPhone assembly hubs. This development comes days after one of Tata Electronics’ plants in Tamil Nadu had seen protests by local farmers who alleged contamination of farmland, with the local pollution control board issuing the company a warning notice over the issue.
Tata Communications hasn’t answered detailed questions about the breach, where data leaked included Outlook email conversations, SAP-related information and documents linked to Apple and Tesla, besides other clients. According to a Reuters report, some employees at its iPhone assembly plant were informed about the breach, with a ransom demand also been made to the company.
