We need new legal framework: Cyber expert on ransomware attack on AIIMS

New Delhi [India], November 24 : With the recent ransomware attacks on AIIMS Delhi, cyber expert Pavan Duggal highlighted the need for a new legal framework and said that companies and organizations across the country face a ransomware attack every 11 seconds.
"AIIMS has sensitive medical data. Tons and tons of medical data can be attacked, a copy of it can be made and then it could have been encrypted using the ransomware attack. As a result of this, the entire digital services of AIIMS Delhi have been stopped and only manual services are going up," said Cyber expert Pavan Duggal.
He also claimed that organizations across the country have been facing such attacks very frequently.
"This kind of attack is a first on a premium health institution but ransomware attacks are not uncommon because every 11 seconds a company becomes a victim of such attacks," he added.
Calling for new approaches and measures at the central level he added, "We need to strengthen governmental system and data by citizens because otherwise, it will snatch away not only the sovereignty but also the right to privacy. It's time that we inculcate cyber security as a way of life. India needs to make a dedicated new legal framework and a dedicated law on cyber security."
His remarks came after All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Wednesday said that it is taking measures to restore the digital services and is seeking support from Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and National Informatics Centre (NIC).
Earlier on Wednesday, AIIMS reported a failure in its server. The server has been down since 7 am today, and the officials have been manually managing the OPD and sample collection.
According to the information given by AIIMS Delhi, "Today the server for National Informatics Centre's eHospital 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."
"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," as per the statement.
"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 stated.