AIIMS cyber attack: An attempt at creating a humanitarian crisis, while fleecing money

The attack at AIIMS has led not only to a humanitarian crisis, but also the theft of data of high-profile personalities. It is feared that 3-4 crore patients' data may have been compromised as part of the attack.

New Delhi, Dec 03: There have been two major cyber attacks that have taken place which have put the system under duress. First was on the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the second one was a snag reported at Mumbai airport's Terminal 2.

Recorded Future, a US-based company which studies the use of cyber attacks by state actors pointed fingers towards RedEcho from China. Reports said that a total of five main servers of the AIIMS were targeted by the suspected Chinese hackers and the data hacked has reportedly reached the main domain of the Dark Web where it may be sold. While it is clear that this is a case of a ransomware attack, it must be noted that in such incidents, the cyber criminals lock access to data or a device and promise to unlock it only after they are paid a desired ransom.

"This will not be the first ransomware attempt. It will not be the last. It is for these entities like they say in the context of terrorism, you have to be right all the time and they can be successful only one time, so we have to be on guard. We have to make sure that our systems and processes are safe and secure. Especially in the era of intensifying digitisation of our economy and of our businesses and activities," Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday.

He further went on to add that this was clearly a conspiracy and has been planned by forces that are pretty significant. It is a sophisticated attack and we will wait for the outcome of the agencies before we could come to any conclusion, the minister was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.

High-profile data:

The agencies are looking into these attacks closely. The attack at AIIMS is more concerning as it has led not only to a humanitarian crisis, but also the theft of data of high-profile personalities. In all, five main servers were targeted. Further data showed that there were over 1,600 searches on the Dark Web for stolen AIIMS data. The stolen data also included details of VVIPs, including politicians and celebrities.

It was also suspected that 3-4 crore patients' data may have been compromised as part of the attack. This incident has thrown the entire mechanism into chaos as the patient care services in the emergency, outpatient, inpatient and laboratory wings are being managed manually as the services are down.

Chinese activity:

In 2020, the Indian agencies had flagged that the activities by the Chinese against India is on the rise. Attempts are being made to carry out cyber attacks, the agencies had said in 2020 at the peak of the border row with China. On 18 June 2020, the Indian agencies said that China had opened another front of attacks with the Distributed Denial of Service attacks on the Indian information websites.

These attacks are malicious attempts to hit a network by following the Distributed Denial of Services with artificially created internet traffic. Banking systems, health infrastructure, ATMs and government websites have been the main target of such attacks.

The probe revealed that these attacks have been traced to Chengdu, which is the headquarters for the Peoples' Liberation Army's Unit 61398. The Indian agencies have repeatedly flagged these concerns and said that the Chinese apple are capable of extracting a lot of data. These apps have the potential to be used as spyware and it could be detrimental to national security.

Speaking about the attack on AIIMS and the demand for a ransom made, officials tell OneIndia that these persons know that they have hit a critical sector. Any demand would put the administration under duress and in the case even more since it is involves the health sector, the official also explained.