NEW DELHI - The leading hospital in India s capital limped back to normalcy after a cyberattack crippled its operations for nearly two weeks.
After the hospital was able to access its server and recover its lost data, online registration of patients resumed Tuesday. The hospital worked with federal authorities to restore the system and strengthen its defenses.
It is not known who conducted the Nov. 23 attack on the All India Institute of Medical Sciences or where it originated. The hospital authorities didn't respond to requests for comment.
The attack was followed by a series of failed attempts to hack India's top medical research organization, the Indian Council of Medical Research. The vulnerability of India's health system to attack is raised by this, as the government is pushing hospitals to digitize their records.
Since its launch in September 2021, more than 173,000 hospitals have registered with a federal program to digitize health records. Patients are assigned assigned numbers that are linked to medical information stored by hospitals on their own servers or cloud-based storage. Experts fear that hospitals may not have the expertise to ensure digital security.
Digitizing an entire health care system without safeguarding it can kill an entire hospital. Srinivas Kodali said it suddenly stops working and was a researcher with the Free Software Movement of India.
That happened to the hospital in New Delhi. Healthcare workers couldn't access patient reports because the servers that hold laboratory data and patient records had been hacked and corrupted.
The hospital treats thousands of people a day, many of whom travel from distant places to access affordable care. The queues at the hospital grew longer and more chaotic.
Deep Ranjan, who came from northeastern Assam to New Delhi, said the whole system isn't working because of the hack. He said he had spent five days waiting in line and still has not seen a doctor.
Sandeep Kumar, who accompanied his ill father, said the digital attack meant appointments couldn't be booked online, and doctors could do little when they saw patients because they couldn't access their medical history.
He said that we are digitizing everything but then there is an attack on the country's most important medical institute.
There were repeated attempts to breach the Indian Council of Medical Research's website on November 30, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
K.C. said that the attack on the hospital raised serious questions about the cybersecurity of the country. Venugopal is a member of the main opposition Congress party.
India drafted a proposed law on data privacy last month, but critics say it offers few safeguards to people. It hasn't been passed yet by the Parliament.