Safdarjung reports cyber attack, no serious damage
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