AIIMS Cyber Attack: Chinese Hackers Infiltrated 5 Servers, Data Retrieved Now

The cyber attack on the servers of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was reportedly contrived in China. 

Chinese hackers invaded five physical servers, news agency ANI quoted a source from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) as saying, adding that the information from these servers has been retrieved now.

“Of the 100 servers — 40 physical and 60 virtual — five physical servers were infiltrated by the hackers. The damage could have been far worse but is now contained. Data in the five servers has been successfully retrieved,” the source was quoted as saying.

The latest development comes weeks after AIIMS Delhi reported that its servers were attacked by hackers. As per reports, the hackers demanded about INR 200 Cr ransom in cryptocurrencies. However, the Delhi Police refuted these reports, saying no ransom demand was made.

Due to the 10-day long cyber attack, AIIMS Delhi had to switch to manual management of emergency and other allied health services. 

Earlier this month, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar called the cyberattack a conspiracy planned by significant forces. 

“It is clearly a conspiracy and it has been planned by forces that are pretty significant. It is a sophisticated ransomware attack. We will wait for the outcome of CERT-In before we come to a conclusion on who is behind the ransomware attack,” Chandrasekhar had said. 

The AIIMS malware attack was investigated by National Investigation Agency (NIA), Indian Computer Emergency Response Team of MeiTY, Delhi Cyber Crime Special Cell, Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, Intelligence Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Forensic Sciences University and National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre, among others.

This is not the first time when critical backed entities or facilities in the countries have been infiltrated by hackers. In November, Central Depository Services Ltd detected malware in some of its machines and simultaneously went offline.

Further, earlier this year, Oil India Ltd was also attacked by cyberattackers demanding $7.5 Mn ransom in bitcoin. 

According to tech colossal Google, India recorded 18 Mn cyberattacks and additional 2 Lakh online threats daily in the first quarter of 2022. 

Meanwhile, another report by CloudSEK stated that the country saw the second-highest number of cyberattacks globally in the healthcare sector in the previous year (2021).