Cyber attackers target ICMR website, Hack it 6,000 times in a day

With increase in cases of cyber crimes and cyber attacks, concern for cyber security is also rising. Post the servers of AIIMS getting hacked, the intensities of attacks on other health and research organizations have only risen. The same can also be said for medical websites and databases storing patients’ information. Health organizations and websites have been under attackers’ target, especially since 2020. In a recent case, hacking of the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) website was attempted.

A government official from NIC (National Informatics Centre) said that Cyber attackers tried to hack the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) website for over 6000 times within a time span of less than 24 hours. The black listed IP address from which the hacking was attempted has been identified to be from Hong Kong.

The NIC official further said that the attackers were unsuccessful in their attempt as the concerned team was given an alert on time. It would have been difficult to control in case the firewall had any loopholes in it. NIC officials have imperatively told the officials to keep the firewall updated.

It is now to be ensured that the NIC guidelines are strictly followed. Government organizations are to keep updating their security patches of their system. It is allegedly the patient information database, that is being targeted by hackers.