Institute Of National Importance: AIIMS Hacked Since 6 Days; Hackers Demand Rs 200 Crore Via Cryptocurrency

Reportedly, for the sixth consecutive day the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi’s server remained out of order as the Hackers have allegedly demanded an estimated Rs 200 crore in cryptocurrency, said official sources on Monday.

Huge Data Breach At AIIMS Delhi

Owing to this incident, the data of around 3-4 crore patients could have been compromised due to the breach detected on Wednesday morning. 

In the meantime, the patient care services in emergency, outpatient, inpatient and laboratory wings are being managed manually as the server remained down, according to the sources.

So far, the ransomware attack is investigated by the India Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), Delhi Police and representatives of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Following the same, 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.

Blocked Internet Services In Hospital Premises

The official sources informed that internet services are blocked in the hospital premises on the recommendations of the investigating agencies. 

It is noteworthy here that the AIIMS server has stored medical data of several VIPs, including former prime ministers, ministers, bureaucrats and judges.

One of the sources confirmed that “Hackers have allegedly demanded around Rs 200 crore in cryptocurrency,”.

NIC Team In Action

In the meantime, the NIC e-hospital database and application servers for e-hospital have been restored. 

Sources said that the NIC team is scanning and cleaning infection from other e-hospital servers located at AIIMS which are required for delivery of hospital services.

They have arranged four physical servers for restoring e-hospital services and have been scanned and prepared for the databases and applications.

Besides this, the AIIMS network sanitisation is in progress along with Antivirus solutions have been organized for servers and computers.

So far, Antivirus has been installed on nearly 1,200 out of 5,000 computers. 

Sources mentioned that twenty out of 50 servers have been scanned and this activity is ongoing 24×7.

Further adding, “The full sanitisation of the network is likely to continue for five more days. Thereafter, e-hospital services can be rolled out in a phased manner. Patient care services including emergency, outpatient, inpatient,laboratory etc services are being continued on manual mode,”.