Cyberattack on Tata Electronics Claims to Leak Apple, Tesla Confidential Data
A recent cybersecurity vulnerability was discovered by Tata Electronics, the company announced on June 22. According to experts, the Indian group's clients Apple and Tesla were among those whose component design and specification papers were leaked by World Leaks. In an interview with a news outlet, security researchers revealed that the ransomware organisation had uploaded over 200,000 files to the dark web.
A few weeks ago, Tata Electronics discovered a cybersecurity incident on certain of its systems, according to a statement. The incident had little effect on Tata's operations across its divisions, and the company's reaction measures were put into place right away.
Tata On the Radar of Cyber Criminals
A media report stated that Apple was conducting an investigation into the hack and a thorough study was underway. Tata reportedly received a ransom demand in connection with the incident, according to the report. Tata is under investigation for allegedly polluting farmlands close to one of its iPhone parts factories in India.
Further adding to the pain is this violation is the most recent setback for Apple's supply chain there. As part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plan to transform India into a global leader in electronics manufacturing, Tata is quickly becoming one of Apple's most significant non-Chinese manufacturing partners. A cyberattack on Tata's British Jaguar Land Rover division last year caused a six-week production freeze.
Claims Made by World Leaks
On its dark web website, World Leaks announced that it was disclosing stolen data from Tata Electronics. The group has claimed credit for a Nike break-in in the past. The data from Tata Electronics reportedly contains over 630 gigabytes of information spread across over 200,000 files, according to the World Leaks website. Its database contains what appear to be Apple files and folders, including ones with the extension "com.apple.factorydata" and references to "material specification" in papers.
Emails, event logs spanning years, and passport copies of employees—including foreign nationals—are also contained in the Tata files that were reviewed by Indian cybersecurity expert Rajshekhar Rajaharia for a media agency. When it comes to cyber events, Rajaharia has advised the Indian police in the past. Beyond the reach of search engines, the website can only be accessed via the dark web, also known as the dark net. The data dump had been available on the dark web since at least June 10, according to Rakesh Krishnan, another security researcher who examined it.
An alleged reference to components utilised in an enhanced variant of Tesla's Model Y SUV was made in a folder titled "NV36 Chargeport Controller - North America" in the World Leaks database. One further alleged Tesla 2023 document labelled as "TRADE SECRET" revealed specific designs for project Highland, an internally known codename for the company's redesigned Model 3 sedan.
