AIIMS Cyberattack: Lack of centralized security system makes it tough to restore all processes online

Even though the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) announced its hospital data has been recovered following the suspected ransomware assault on November 23, reports claimed that the institute may take longer to restore all of its procedures.

AIIMS has about 10,000 systems but no centralized network security control centre from which entities participating in the restoration effort may operate. The authorities want to sanitize each system, which will take extra time.

According to reports, approximately 30-35% of the work on sanitizing systems has been accomplished thus far. Officials emphasized that sanitizing each machine eliminates the potential of a bug or virus.

The data backup has been finished, and AIIMS may make the final decision on resuming the full operation of all systems.

It was previously stated that the AIIMS Delhi hack, which was thought to be carried handled by foreign actors, may have exposed the details of over 40 million patients. These records might contain patient and healthcare worker PPIs, as well as information on blood donors, ambulances, vaccinations, carers, and staff login passwords.

The servers for AIIMS Delhi's e-hospital system fell down on November 23, disrupting digital services such as smart lab, invoicing, report production, and appointment system. The e-hospital system, developed by the National Informatics Centre, is an HMIS that allows for the digitization of internal workflows and procedures and acts as a single digital platform linking patients, hospitals, and doctors.

This cyber intrusion occurs as AIIMS Delhi embarks on a road of digital transformation. It plans to completely integrate the e-hospital system by next year. It is also installing a smart card facility in order to transition to all-digital payments by April.