Delhi AIIMS cyber attack was handiwork of Chinese hackers: Data is now safe

New Delhi, Dec 14: The Centre on Wednesday confirmed that hackers from China hacked the Delhi AIIMS server.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi faced a cyber attack last month following which a case of extortion and cyber terrorism was registered by the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit of the Delhi Police on November 25.

Currently the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is investigating the deliberate and targeted ransomware attack.

FIR details that the attack originated from China. Of 100 servers, 40 physical and 60 virtual, five physical servers were successfully infiltrated by the hackers. Data in the five servers have been successfully retrieved now, reports quoting officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

The system glitched for the first time on November 23 and a case of extortion and cyber terrorism was registered by the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit of the Delhi police. The police however denied reports that the hackers had asked for Rs 200 crore in cryptocurrency as ransom to restore the system.

Almost all services are online at the institute and hence were affected. Additional staff was deployed as its switched to manual mode. All the servers went offline during the probe although not all servers were hit.

Every year there are 38 lakh patients including top political leaders, bureaucrats and judges who get treated at AIIMS. All the 5,000 odd computers and servers were scanned by top intelligence and anti-terror agencies, besides IT emergency teams.

The issue was also raised in Parliament two days back and senior Congress leader, Shashi Tharoor had sought an investigation and measures to ensure that no such repeat takes place. The origin, intent and extent of the attack remain unclear, Tharoor, an MP from Thiruvananthapuram said in the Lok Sabha.

Scores of agencies such as the NIA, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team within the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Delhi cybercrime special cell, Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, Intelligence Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Forensic Sciences University and National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre are probing the attack.