AIIMS scrambles to keep OPD going on Day 3 of server outage

POLICE SAID AN INITIAL PROBE SUGGESTED THAT THE HACKERS EXPLOITED THE AIIMS SERVER’S ‘WEAK SECURITY’

Two days after a suspected ransomware attack hit servers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), security agencies on Friday were still struggling to revive the system, resulting in the hospital administration releasing colour-coded forms to segregate the patient load.

The hospital has also directed heads of departments to deploy the maximum possible manpower to make up for delays due to the manual handling of administrative work.

In an office order issued on Friing day, AIIMS medical superintendent Dr DK Sharma said, “We are all aware of the infelicitous software malware cyberattack on our ehospital system. It need not be overemphasised that the concerned government agencies and AIIMS administration are worksecretary hard to retrieve and restore the system’s functioning at the earliest.”

Ransomware operators typically demand a payment -- hence, ransom -- to provide the key to decrypt the files. This sort of an attack involves a malware that locks away access to files, crippling regular functioning.

The Delhi Police’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) cell filed an FIR invoking sections of cyber terrorism against unknown persons, while teams of the NIC and Computer Emergency Response Team attempted to restore the network. However, the servers were still down as of 10pm on Friday.

An official statement released by AIIMS said, “We hope to be able to restore the affected activities soon. All patient care services, including lab services, continue to be managed manually.”

A Delhi Police officer associated with the probe said, “Our initial probe has suggested that the hackers operate from outside India and exploited the weak security network of the AIIMS servers. The maintenance of the servers was not proper, and the anti-virus softwares were quite weak. The hacker demanded ransom in cryptocurrency, but it’s not clear how much the extortion demand was.”