AIIMS Delhi hit with malware attack; services ‘secure and functional’

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi on Tuesday thwarted a malware attack on its servers.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi on Tuesday thwarted a malware attack on its servers, ensuring services remain fully secure and functional. The attack was detected at 2:50 pm by the cyber-security systems in AIIMS, New Delhi.

File photo of AIIMS Delhi. (Mohd Zakir/HT Photo)

In a tweet, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi said, "A malware attack was detected at 14:50 hrs 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. The eHospital services remain to be fully secure and are functioning normally."

Notably, a similar attack in November last year crippled hospital registration, admission, and discharge services for two weeks.

AIIMS Delhi first reported a failure in its servers on November 23, 2022. Two of the analysts deployed to look after the servers' securities have also been suspended for the alleged breach of cyber security.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a tweet said, "E-Hospital.aiims.edu is an internal application not available for internet users. Someone may have tried accessing this portal and the alert was generated due to the security layer used by AIIMS. The same person may have taken a screenshot of the error msg and circulated it. There is no cyber incident or breach. Error msgs have also been rectified now."

"AIIMS Delhi server attack was by the Chinese, FIR details that the attack had originated from China. Of 100 servers (40 physical and 60 virtual), five physical servers were successfully infiltrated by the hackers. The damage would have been far worse but is now contained. Data in the five servers have been successfully retrieved now," said the source from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).