AIIMS-Delhi: Services switched to manual as server goes down; ransomware suspected

A team from NIC has informed that this may be a ransomware attack and is being investigated by appropriate law enforcement authorities

New Delhi: The server for National Informatics Centre's e-Hospital used at AIIMS-New Delhi has been down since 7 AM on Wednesday, November 23, 2022, affecting the healthcare centre's outpatient department (OPD) and sample collection services. All these services are running on manual mode at present, AIIMS authorities said.

A team from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) working at AIIMS has informed that this may be a ransomware attack, which is being reported to and will be investigated by appropriate law enforcement authorities, AIIMS said in a statement.

"With the server being down, the outpatient and inpatient digital hospital services, including smart lab, billing, report generation and appointment system, among others have been affected," an AIIMS official said.

The OPD and sample collection were handled manually but the sample collection system for those who do not have a Unique Health Identification was affected, another official said. As each sample collected requires a barcode for tracking, the server going down has led to very few samples being collected, he added.

Measures are being taken to restore the digital services and support is being sought from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and NIC, AIIMS said in the statement. "AIIMS and NIC will take due precaution to prevent future such attacks. As of 7.30 pm, the hospital services are running on manual mode," it added.