Hackers 'demand Rs 200cr' from Indian healthcare institute
Hackers allegedly demanded Rs 200 crore in cryptocurrency from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the premier facility in New Delhi after its server remained out of order for six consecutive days, official sources said.
Data of nearly four crore patients are feared to have been compromised due to the breach detected last week.
The AIIMS server has stored the data of several VIPs, including former prime ministers, ministers, bureaucrats and judges, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
Patient care services in emergency, OPD, inpatient and laboratory wings are being managed manually as the server remained down and it will take five more days for full restoration of e-services , the sources said.
The India Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), Delhi police and the Indian home ministry officials are investigating the ransomware attack.
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.
"Hackers have demanded around Rs 200 crore in cryptocurrency," an AIIMS source said.
A team of National Informatics Centre is scanning other e-hospital servers located at AIIMS which are required for delivery of hospital services, an official source said.
Four physical servers arranged for restoring e-hospital services have been scanned and prepared for the databases and applications.
Also, the AIIMS network sanitisation is in progress. Antivirus solutions have been organised for servers and computers. It has been installed on nearly 1,200 out of 5,000 computers.
Twenty out of 50 servers have been scanned and this activity is ongoing 24/7, the source said.
"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.