AIIMS cyber attack: eHospital data restored, details of 3 crore patients still at risk amid Rs 200 cr ransom reports

The cyber attack on the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi, which is the premier medical institute in India, hit the day-to-day operations of the hospital very hard, with the data and personal information of the patients at risk.

The cyber-attack took place a week ago, and the data operations at AIIMS came to a standstill for six days. The eHospital data of AIIMS was recovered on Tuesday night, but many believe that the data of crores of patients still remain at risk.

The day-to-day operations work at AIIMS include appointments and registration, billing, laboratory report generation, and other data storage systems, freezing and corrupting the files in the storage and the backup modules in the hospital.

The network is being sanitized before the services can be restored as all hospital services, including outpatient, in-patient, and laboratories, continue to run on manual mode.

AIIMS said in an official statement, “The process is taking some time due to the volume of data and a large number of servers/computers for the hospital services. Measures are being taken for cyber security.”

A case of extortion and cyber terrorism was registered by the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi Police on November 25. Meanwhile, two system analysts were suspended by AIIMS on Monday after being served show-cause notices for alleged dereliction of duty.

It must be noted that the data breach in AIIMS targeted the data of around 3-4 crore patients who have got their treatments and consultations done at the hospital. This data also includes that of VIPs such as former prime ministers, judges, and MPs.

While AIIMS has denied the allegations of any ransom demanded after the data attack, media reports suggested that the hackers have demanded Rs 200 crores in cryptocurrency. While no such ransom was delivered, it is likely that the data of the patients can still be in the possession of the hackers.

(With inputs from agencies)

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