<span style="color: #222222;">A report released by a US-based company has revealed that a Chinese Government-linked group of hackers targeted India's critical power grid system through malware, raising suspicion whether last year's massive power outage in Mumbai was a result of the online intrusion.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Recorded Future, a Massachusetts-based company which studies the use of the internet by state actors, in its recent report details the campaign conducted by a China-linked threat activity group RedEcho targeting the Indian power sector. The activity was identified through a combination of large-scale automated network traffic analytics and expert analysis.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">On 12th of October, a grid failure in Mumbai resulted in massive power outages, stopping trains on tracks, hampering those working from home amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and hitting the stuttering economic activity hard. It took two hours for the power supply to resume for essential services, prompting Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to order an enquiry into the incident.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Since early 2020, Recorded Future's Insikt Group observed a large increase in suspected targeted intrusion activity against Indian organisations from the Chinese state-sponsored group. As per a US media report, the discovery raises the question about whether the Mumbai outage was meant as a message from Beijing to India to not push its border claims too vigorously.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">In response to the allegation, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin today rejected the criticism about China's involvement in the hacking of India's power grid, saying it is irresponsible and ill-intentioned to make allegations without proof.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">China is a staunch upholder of cyber security. We firmly oppose and fight any kind of cyber-attacks, he said. It is hard to track the origin of the cyber-attacks.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">You cannot make wanton guesses or smear a specific country without any proof. China firmly opposes such behaviour, he said in Beijing.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">India and China reached a mutual agreement last month for the disengagement of troops from the most contentious area of North and South banks of the Pangong Lake.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">However, there is no announcement on the further de-escalation at other friction areas.</span>