AIIMS new OPD registration resumes partially after cyber attack

NEW DELHI: After a cyber attack on the server of AIIMS Delhi, the process for approximately 3,000 new registrations and follow-up registrations has begun in New RAK (Rajkumari Amrit Kaur) OPD at AIIMS Delhi, according to sources on Tuesday.

Registration for the wards and path labs is expected to begin soon in phases.

"AIIMS Delhi services will start full-fledged this week. Approximately 4,000 computers have been scanned and antivirus has also been uploaded for future safety." a source told ANI.

However, sources said the internet services are still blocked.

The team from the computer facility is conducting meetings on regular basis. Two analysts were suspended last week for a data breach and more are under the radar.

A special cell of Delhi Police launched an investigation into the alleged malware attack at AIIMS Delhi.

Last week, on Tuesday, the AIIMS also issued a statement that the e-Hospital data has been restored. "The eHospital data has been restored on the servers. The network is being sanitized before the services can be restored. The process is taking some time due to the volume of data and a large number of servers/computers for the hospital services. Measures are being taken for cyber security," the statement read.

"The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also joined the investigation. The India Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), Delhi Police, Intelligence Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) representatives are already probing the incident." a source told ANI.

The Laboratory information system (LIS) database and other dependent databases have also been restored.

The Safdarjung hospital also reported a cyber attack but it since it runs its OPD services manually as well, the impact of the attack was not as major.

The Medical Superintendent of Safdarjung Hospital, Dr BL Sherwal said, "There was a cyber attack. Our server was also down in November for a single day, but data was secured. The matter was handled by IT and the National informatics Centre (NIC), which revived the systems."

Dr Sherwal further said that the cyber attack wasn't ransomware. "According to my knowledge, it wasn't ransomware," he said.

Another official from the hospital said that IP was blocked.

"We contacted IT of the hospital also for more information but they didn't respond," he said.

"In November, only for one day, we heard that server is down for some time, but later they got revived. Most of the time we do our work manually," one of the senior Resident doctors said.