Fraud Management & Cybercrime , Incident & Breach Response , Ransomware

Server Remains Down; India's Premier Healthcare Uses Paper

Hospital Says eHospital Data Restored on Servers
Server Remains Down; India's Premier Healthcare Uses Paper
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences-New Delhi's Ward Block Building (Image: Vishnoi M/CC BY-SA 4.0)

India's flagship combined public medical university and hospital continues to grapple with the fallout of a cyber incident it underwent last Wednesday. Patient care services remain affected as of Tuesday as physicians and staff use manual processes in place of disabled electronic systems.

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The New Delhi branch of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences said it successfully restored data held in hospital management information system eHospital. The network is being sanitized before the services can resume, the hospital said in a Tuesday update.

"All hospital services, including outpatient, in-patient, laboratories, etc continue to run on manual mode," the institute said.

AIIMS is the national capital's largest referral hospital, serving 1.5 million outpatients and 80,000 inpatients annually. It has treated the country's prime minister, president and other national figures. The attack came just weeks before the hospital's planned transition in January to paper-free processes.

Multiple media outlets have reported that an unknown hacker has demanded 2 billion rupees worth of cryptocurrency as ransom. Delhi Police officials say otherwise, stating in a tweet that "No such information brought to notice by AIIMS authorities." Law enforcement is investigating the incident.

An AIIMS spokesperson earlier told Information Security Media Group the incident affected patient care services such as appointments, registrations, admissions, discharges, billing and report generation (see: Ransomware Disrupts Indian Premier Hospital for 2nd Day).

Several patients have taken to social media to complain about delayed services. A user named Hasan I Jafri tweeted, "I am in AIIMS from 17th November for open heart surgery, on 23 they were not able to give computerized blood donation receipt. Photo of manual receipt is attached. And today many patients delayed for discharge due to this problem."


About the Author

Prajeet Nair

Prajeet Nair

Assistant Editor, Global News Desk, ISMG

Nair previously worked at TechCircle, IDG, Times Group and other publications, where he reported on developments in enterprise technology, digital transformation and other issues.




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