Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar : A ransomware attack on the servers of Kamalnayan Bajaj Hospital has severely disrupted patient services, paralysing billing operations, health insurance processing and treatment benefits under govt schemes since Oct 18. With the Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) rendered inaccessible, patients have reportedly been facing delays in treatment, medicine dispensing and claim settlements.
The breach came to light around 3 am on Oct 18 when billing staff found that bills could not be generated as the HMIS had stopped functioning, according to the complaint. Shinde said the hospital first reported the incident to CERT-In, the national cyber security agency, and provided the required technical information before approaching the police.
Prashant Pandey, the hospital’s IT department head, was alerted and he found the server inaccessible, displaying an “access denied” message. Police said a ransom note later appeared on the system. The note, purportedly from a group calling itself “Crypto24 Group”, claimed hospital files had been encrypted and sensitive data stolen. “The services have not stopped, they have just slowed down,” said hospital executive committee member Dr Milind Vaishnav. However, police said the complaint does not disclose the amount of ransom allegedly demanded by the hackers.
Police have registered an FIR against unidentified cyber criminals after the hospital alleged that all nine of its servers were hacked, data was encrypted and a ransom was demanded for its release. The attack has affected one of the leading hospitals in the Marathwada region and brought much of its digital operations to a standstill. The firewall could not be accessed and antivirus logs reportedly indicated a virus attack across all nine servers. It warned that the data would be published on a Tor-based leak site unless contact was established within a stipulated period. The FIR states that patient care, billing, insurance processing, reporting and several other hospital functions were affected after the attack. Services related to medicines and billing under the HMIS were also hit, causing inconvenience to patients. “We have informed all the authorities concerned, including those heading govt schemes, about the situation. We have a disaster management plan in place and it has been executed,” Vaishnav added. Hospital sources claimed the attack had caused substantial financial losses and severely hampered day-to-day operations.