On Wednesday, the Central government confirmed that Chinese hackers had compromised the Delhi AIIMS server. The servers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi were compromised by a cyberattack last month. The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) division of Delhi Police has filed a case of extortion and cyberterrorism. The “planned and targeted” ransomware attack is currently being looked into by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Senior Ministry of Health and Family Welfare officials stated on Wednesday, “The attack came from China, according to the FIR. Five physical servers out of 100 (40 physical, 60 virtual) servers were successfully breached by the hackers. The five servers’ data’s reovery is successful and the data is safe.”
The initial system problem occurred on November 23. Two days later, the IFSO unit of the Delhi Police filed a case of extortion and cyber terrorism. Nevertheless, the police have denied claims that hackers demanded Rs 200 crore in cryptocurrencies. This is therefore, not a ransomware attack.
Why this is a matter of concern?
Practically all of the institute’s online services, including the scheduling system, billing, and sharing of data with patients are under affect. Even though not all servers are under impact, it shifted to manual mode and was completely offline during the investigation. Thus, requiring the deployment of additional employees.
The attack’s main aim is the stealing of patient data. Around 38 lakh patients receive treatment at AIIMS Delhi each year, including top officials, judges, and bureaucrats. Along with IT emergency teams, leading intelligence and anti-terror agencies worked the case. All 5,000 or so computers and the servers were inspected.
What the government is doing for the same?
The National Forensic Sciences University, the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Center, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team within the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Delhi Cybercrime Special Cell, the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, the Intelligence Bureau, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and the NIA, among others, are all conducting their own investigations into the cyberattack.
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