Last month, AIIMS saw major operational and safety issues due to a cyber attack by unknown hackers. Now, government sources have confirmed that the attack on AIIMS originated from China, while assuring citizens that the data related to over lakhs of patients at the hospital has been retrieved.
"The server attack was by the Chinese; the probe found that it originated from China," a source informed NDTV.
"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," explained the source.
AIIMs filed a case of cyber terrorism and extortion on November 25 with the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi Police. Rumours regarding the hackers asking for ₹ 200 Crore in cryptocurrency, however, the police have denied this.
Almost all services at AIIMS are linked to digital operations, and thus, all were affected by the attack. All staff had to switch to manual operations in order to continue treating patients as smoothly as possible.
AIIMS was attacked so that hackers could get their hands on confidential patient data. 38 Lakh patients are treated at AIIMS annually, and this includes judges, political leaders, bureaucrats, and other important individuals.
It is believed that this may be a “hostile cross-border attack”. However, there have been no confirmations about the same. Border clashes with China are currently going on, which makes the timing of the attack a little too coincidental.