Why blaming China in the AIIMS ransomware attack exposes India’s shoddy cybersecurity preparedness

AIIMS healthcare data would be of particular interest to foreign intelligence agencies, as it is the hospital of choice for the who’s who of Indian political leadership.

Synopsis

The attack that crippled AIIMS is the latest in a long list of major cybersecurity incidents in India. Inexplicably, India’s government still refuses to learn key lessons and raise the level of the country’s cybersecurity preparedness. Moreover, the National Cyber Security Strategy 2021, which should help the country deal with such attacks, has been stuck for years.

On Friday, news started filtering out that China-based hackers might have been behind the ransomware attack on India’s premier medical institution, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. For many cybersecurity experts, this brought with it a familiar sense of déjà vu. This was not the first time that countries hostile to India, including China and Pakistan, have been blamed for cyberattacks. This is 2022. The threat posed by state actors

BY

Dec 7, 2022, 04:00 AM IST

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