New Delhi: Hackers have allegedly demanded around Rs 200 cr in cryptocurrency from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, as the institution's server has been unavailable for the sixth day in a row, reported news agency PTI. Due to the breach that was discovered on Wednesday morning, it is feared that the data of between 3 and 4 crore patients may have been compromised.
According to the sources, patient care services in the emergency, outpatient, inpatient and laboratory wings are being managed manually while the server was down.
The ransomware attack is under investigation by representatives of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Delhi Police, and the India Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN).
On November 25, the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi Police filed a report of extortion and cyber terrorism.
According to official sources, the hospital's computers have Internet services disabled on the advice of the investigating agencies.
Several VIPs, including former prime ministers, ministers, bureaucrats, and judges, have had their data stored on the AIIMS server.
One of the sources informed PTI that "hackers have allegedly demanded around Rs 200 crore in cryptocurrency."
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The NIC e-hospital database and application servers have been restored in the interim. An official source stated that the NIC team is examining and removing infection from AIIMS-based e-hospital servers that are necessary for the provision of hospital services.
Scans and preparations for the databases and applications have been made on four physical servers that have been set up to restore e-hospital services.
Additionally, the AIIMS network is being cleaned up. Antivirus solutions have been organised for servers and computers. On 5,000 computers, it has been installed on nearly 1,200. According to the source, twenty out of fifty servers have been scanned, and this activity is ongoing round the clock.
"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," the source said.
(With PTI Inputs)
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