NEW DELHI: The ransomware attack on the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi has made the country’s premier medical institute issue standard operating procedure (SoP) for its officials, doctors and other staff to maintain cyber hygiene.
The SoP states that no pen drive, USB, or external storage media should be allowed on AIIMS network.
The cyber-attack had compromised the personal data of millions of patients including “VVIPs“ such as civil servants and politicians.
“Removable media (pen-drives/external hard disks etc) are a major source for spread of viruses and malicious software. Indiscriminate use of USB pen drives, external hard drives etc can put the user as well as the institute data at risk. It is the responsibility of all of us to ensure that we maintain cyber hygiene in use of USB drives such that the risk to the critical IT applications running at AIIMS is minimised and viruses do not spread on the AIIMS network,” said an official communication issued by AIIMS.
The advisory also directs use of official email id for official data transfer. “Under no circumstances will USB be allowed on a system that needs access to e-hospital,” it stated warning that non-adherence to these directions may call for a strict disciplinary action against the user.
