New Delhi: A day after Tata Electronics disclosed a cybersecurity incident affecting some of its systems, industry experts called for a fundamental shift in cyber resilience strategies as artificial intelligence-driven threats become increasingly sophisticated and frequent.
Abilash Soundararajan, Founder and CEO of PrivaSapien, said incidents such as the reported Tata Electronics breach highlight a significant transformation underway in cybersecurity. While organisations have traditionally focused on securing data at rest and in transit, and on backup and recovery mechanisms, these approaches do not address the risks associated with sensitive information that may already have been exposed.
"The future is going to be breach by default with AI-generated attacks. The game moves to proactive antidotes for attacks. Even in case of a breach, the need is to ensure that compromised data remains protected beyond the breach. That is where the industry must evolve next," he said.
Rajesh Chhabra, General Manager, APAC, Large Markets, Acronis, said cyber incidents in the global electronics manufacturing industry affect the credibility of the entire supply chain and not just individual vendors.
"If files connected to Apple and Tesla have been made public, it raises questions about supplier ecosystem security, intellectual property protection and product secrecy as multinational corporations expand manufacturing operations in India," he said.
A spokesperson for Tata Electronics said the company had identified a cybersecurity incident affecting some of its systems a few weeks ago.
"Our response protocols were deployed immediately, and the incident has had no impact on our operations across businesses, which remain unaffected," the spokesperson said.
According to reports, the breach allegedly involved component design and specification documents related to Apple and Tesla, both customers of the Tata Group company. Security researchers told Reuters that the ransomware group behind the attack has posted more than 200,000 files on the dark web.
Reports also said Apple was investigating the breach and conducting a full analysis, while Tata Electronics had reportedly received a ransom demand related to the incident.
Tata Group has emerged as one of Apple's most important manufacturing partners outside China. The conglomerate's British luxury car unit, Jaguar Land Rover, was also hit by a cyberattack last year, resulting in a six-week production halt.
According to the World Leaks website, the Tata Electronics dataset comprises more than 200,000 files, amounting to over 630 gigabytes of data.
