Servers of the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), New Delhi, server remained out of order for the seventh consecutive day.
New Delhi,UPDATED: Nov 29, 2022 23:29 IST
Internet services at the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) have been blocked. (File photo)
By Jitendra Bahadur Singh: A high-level meeting was called by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday regarding the ongoing server issue at the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in the national capital, sources told India Today. Senior officials of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), AIIMS, National Informatics Centre (NIC), National Investigation Agency (NIA), MHA and Delhi Police were present at the meeting which lasted for hours.
Servers at the AIIMS remained affected on the seventh day today. It is feared that data of crores of patients could have been compromised due to the alleged breach detected in the hospital’s servers on November 23.
Authorities at AIIMS approached Delhi Police after the national medical institute’s server remained affected for over 24 hours. After an initial probe, Delhi Police said that experts are investigating the possibility of a ransomware attack.
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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. Some claims suggest that hackers have allegedly demanded an estimated Rs 200 crore in cryptocurrency from AIIMS.
Delhi Police, however, issued a statement, saying “no ransom demand as being quoted by certain sections of the media has been brought to notice by AIIMS authorities.”
Meanwhile, AIIMS issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the e-Hospital data has been restored on servers.
“Network is being sanitized before services can be restored. The process is taking some time due to the volume of data and large number of servers/computers for hospital services. Measures are being taken for cyber security,” AIIMS said in an official statement.
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However, the institute also stated that all hospital services, including outpatient, in-patient, laboratories, etc continue to run on manual mode.
It is noteworthy that AIIMS server has stored data of several VIPs, including former prime ministers, ministers, bureaucrats and judges of the country.
