This is being done on the advice of the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) and Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which recently found malware on computers connected with MTNL.

AIIMS Delhi has faced disruption in services due to cyberattacks, following which all doctors and medical staff have been advised to use AIIMS computers on its closed networks.

“To strengthen the cyber security posture at AIIMS, New Delhi, EDR is being installed in all the systems by BEL throughout the AIIMS campus,” said AIIMS director M. Srinivas in a communication to faculties and officials.

Any breach of data privacy may result in compromising the gains India has made in the digital health sector.

Queries sent to BEL and the health ministry spokesperson remained unanswered.

The task is being conducted under the supervision of a computer facility to ensure security of the IT network at the institute.

The computer facility is doing correlation of EDR installed computers with the computers authorized to access e-hospital.

“For any mismatched computers, the access to e-hospital and LAN will be blocked. Besides this, EDR will also be installed on computers that are connected to MTNL/private internet connection. On personal or research computers in AIIMS premises, users need to ensure presence of updated antivirus if the system is being connected to MTNL or private network,” said Srinivas in the letter seen by Mint.

During 2021–22, AIIMS attended to more than 2.50 million outpatients and 200,000 inpatients and performed 144,000 surgical procedures.

At a time when India taking steps to digitize the economy and has built digital public infrastructure (DPI), cyber security remains one of the biggest challenges for the government to keep the data safe and secure.

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Updated: 04 Oct 2023, 10:32 PM IST