AIIMS Delhi hit by fresh cyberattack for second time in a year

The All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in New Delhi was hit by fresh cyberattacks on Monday. The premier medical institution said that the attempt of malware attack was successfully thwarted and the threat was neutralized in time.

"A malware attack was detected at 2:50 pm by the cyber-security systems in AIIMS, New Delhi. The attempt was successfully thwarted, and the threat was neutralised by the deployed cyber-security systems..," tweets All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.

This is the second cyberattack against AIIMS Delhi within a year as the premier medical institute faced disruption in services due to a cyberattack in November 2022. The servers of the medical institute went out of order due to the attack and the AIIMS also suspended two analysts for the alleged breach of cyber security.

The internet services at the hospital remained blocked for several days as Delhi Police joined the investigation with Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and National Informatics Centre (NIC). The National Investigation Agency (NIA) also visited the hospital and helped the investigative agencies in the case.

The cyberattack led to the disruption of many services, especially online-based processes. The hospital launched Standard Operation Procedures (SoP) under manual admission and discharge procedure.

Links with China and Hong Kong

The investigation into the AIIMS cyberattack revealed that the servers used in the cyberattack might have originated in China and Hong Kong. Delhi also wrote to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and asked it to obtain more information from Interpol.

Also Read: AIIMS Delhi cyber attack: Cops seek data on China, Hong Kong-based IP address from CBI

The reports also said that AIIMS was not the only target of cyberattacks as attempts at the servers of other premier institutions were also made and the website of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was reportedly targeted 6,000 times, but the hackers failed to hack it.