By George Ward
Recently, a group of cyber attackers breached the server of the AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences). Following the attack, the hackers requested a ransom of ₹200 crores to be paid in Bitcoin.
Mint, a local news media, noted that the server of the Delhi-based hospital had been down for over six days. Additionally, Mint said the Delhi Police, reps from the country’s Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team are on the case.
With the current market price, the ransom is over $24.5 million. The medical institute announced the attack on November 22nd. The server is reported to contain the data of about 40 million patients.
However, the hospital has fallen back to manual means to manage the data of patients in emergency, inpatient, laboratory wings, and outpatients. Millions of data, such as those of ministers, judges, bureaucrats, ex-prime ministers, and VIPs, were reportedly breached.
Presently, the investigating team has blocked internet service at the health center. Furthermore, authorities have been able to restore the e-hospital’s application servers and its database.
The NIC is currently scanning and cleaning the servers of other e-hospital located at the center. In addition, they are set to restore the health center’s e-hospital services using four physical servers that have been properly scanned.
What Is A Ransomware Attack?
Many have described the AIIMS attack as a Ransomware scheme. Ransomware is a piece of malicious software that attacks the computer of a victim.
The attacker usually demands ransom payment from the attacker before allowing them to access their computer. Hackers who use this technique targets level corporations, businesses, universities, and hospitals.
Besides, AIIMS is one of many firms to suffer such an attack. Two years ago, hackers attacked Argentina’s immigration agency demanding a ransom of $4 million.
Nevertheless, the Indian authorities are trying to restore the hospital’s server. They have deployed antivirus solutions for computers and servers at the health center.
Furthermore, the authorities have installed the antivirus on about 1,200 of the 5,000 available at the hospital. Also, they have scanned 20 out of the 50 servers.
Meanwhile, it is uncertain when the hospital servers will be restored. However, the attackers are not ready to relinquish their hold on the hospital.