India’s top hospital AIIMS in the national capital suffered hacking of its servers last week. Now, hackers have demanded Rs 200 crore ($24 million) in cryptocurrency to restore the 50-odd servers, media reports said.
The hacking of the government-run hospital in New Delhi was detected on November 23. There is fear that the hack could have unlocked the private details of 30 million patients, including senior ministers, and other VIPs. Currently, the hospital’s services in areas of emergency, OP, and labs are being run manually.
The compromised servers have impacted the work of smart lab, appointment system, billing, report generation, and other related services, the media coverage said.
Although the city police has stated in a tweet that hospital authorities have not brought the ransom demand to its notice.
CERT-IN, cybercrime experts team of Delhi Police, and the Home Ministry are handling the probe into the ransomware attack. Also, the IFSO wing of Delhi Police is looking into it as an extortion case.
All internet services on the hospital’s computers have been suspended. Meanwhile, a few physical servers had been installed for e-hospital services. Network sanitization of the hospital is also in progress.
According to the AIIMS management, patients without Unique Health ID have more problems from the server attack. Hardships are also being experienced in the discharge and admission of patients.
