NIA joins AIIMS Delhi server breakdown probe: Sources

By Shalini Bhardwaj
New Delhi [India], November 25 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday joined the ongoing probe into the AIIMS server breakdown after it failed to resume operation for the third straight day, sources said.
The India Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), Delhi Police, Intelligence Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) officials are already probing the incident.
Sources said internet services at the AIIMS will remain blocked on the advice of the investigating teams.
On Thursday, the AIIMS issued a fresh set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) which says admission, discharge and transfer of patients will be done manually at the hospital till the e-Hospital is down.
"Latest SOPs have to be followed in manual mode till e-Hospital is down. Admissions, discharges and transfers are to be done manually at AIIMS, New Delhi. Indent to be done manually," the hospital said in a statement.
It further said that death or birth certificates are to be made manually on forms, as per instructions from the working committee
"Only urgent samples to be sent and that too, with filled forms. Only urgent investigations are to be sent with forms, as per instruction from the working committee," it added.
On Wednesday, the AIIMS had reported a failure in its server. "The server has been down, and the officials have been manually managing the OPD and sample collection," the hospital said in an earlier statement.
The AIIMS said it was taking measures to restore the digital services and seeking support from Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
"The server for National Informatics Centre's e-Hospital being used at AIIMS, New Delhi was down due to which outpatient and inpatient digital hospital services including, smart lab, billing, report generation, appointment system etc., have been affected. All these services are running on manual mode currently," the hospital had said.
"National Informatics Centre (NIC) team working at AIIMS has informed that this may be a ransomware attack which is being reported and will be investigated by appropriate law enforcement authorities. Measures are being taken to restore the digital services and support is being sought from Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and National Informatics Centre (NIC)," the AIIMS statement further informed.
"AIIMS and NIC will take due precaution to prevent such attacks in future. As of 7.30 pm, the hospital services are running on manual mode," it added.
"The staff has been managing the outpatient department (OPD) and sample collection manually. But those who do not have a Unique Health Identification are facing problems in this regard. The administration is also facing problems in admission and discharge of patients," the statement further read.