Hindustan Times (Noida)

Safdarjung reports cyber attack, no serious damage

- Soumya Pillai letters@hindustant­imes.com

NEW DELHI: The Safdarjung hospital was hit by a cyberattac­k in mid-november, officials said on Friday, but the consequenc­e was not as crippling as it has been for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital since its processes are not computeris­ed to any significan­t degree.

The disclosure comes as AIIMS, the country’s foremost government hospital and medical research centre, remained offline for the 11th day after a ransomware attack locked, and possibly stole, medical records and knocked out the main hospital management software.

“There was a cyber attack in our hospital system and servers were down but the National Informatic­s Centre (NIC) was able to revive the systems,” said Dr BL Sherwal, medical superinten­dent of Safdarjung hospital.

According to Sherwal, the administra­tion was informed about the cyberattac­k early on November 14, after computer operators were unable to log into a few computers.

Other officials from the hospital said the network was hit for roughly 12 hours but was brought online the same day.

It was not clear if the cyberattac­k involved the same attackers or the malware that infected AIIMS, but these people, who asked not to be named, said it too was a ransomware.

“In AIIMS, from taking an appointmen­t to printing prescripti­ons, everything is digitised. In Safdarjung Hospital, most of our daily operations continue manually. That is a major reason why the impact was not as badly felt,” said Dr Anuj Agarwal, senior resident, department of radio-diagnosis and interventi­onal radiology, and general secretary of the resident doctors’ associatio­n at Safdarjung Hospital.

On November 23, the systems at AIIMS and its centres were corrupted by a ransomware attack, which wiped patient records, administra­tive and research data from its primary and backup servers. The Delhi Police’s Intelligen­ce Fusion and Strategic Operations cell filed an FIR invoking sections of cyber terrorism (IT Act, section 66F) against unknown persons.

In its latest statement issued on Thursday, AIIMS said that ehospital applicatio­n, the software used for various services, was restored and the rest of the network was being sanitised before services can be restored. All hospital services, including for outpatient and in-patient functions, laboratori­es continue to run on a manual basis, slowing things down immensely. HT reported on Friday that the hospital has treated 2,000-3,000 patients daily on average last week, compared to the 30,000-35,000 it does typically.

The Delhi Police on Friday also said that forensic images of the infected servers have been sent for analysis. “Analysis is under process,” it added.

In Delhi, heads of other government institutio­ns said they are reviewing if they need to step up security on their networks. “Our primary focus is the protection of patient data and privacy for which we do not compromise on keeping our antivirus software totally updated” said Dr Subhash Giri, medical director of Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital.

There was a cyber attack in our hospital system... but the NIC was able to revive the systems

BL SHERWAL,

Safdarjung medical superinten­dent

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