K D Hospital under cyber attack: Hacker demands $ 70,000 in bitcoin, even offers discount

The hacker asked for $ 70,000 in bitcoin from the hospital. When the hospital did not respond, the hacker offered them a discount.

Ahmedabad: In an incident of cyber attack on the server, $ 70,000 in bitcoin has been demanded from Ahmedabad's KD Hospital near SG Highway while important data have gone missing from the computer. The hospital's IT head, Kishore Gojia, has filed a police complaint in this regard and the matter is being probed.

"We suddenly found that the software was not working and the server too was down. The IT head, Hitesh Patel, was called to resolve the issue. He said that the VMware of the server was showing that all connecting softwares including VMware software were closed," said Mehul Bhavsar, Night Supervisor of the hospital

The IT team got down to work. While checking the software, they found that a cyber attack was made by a hacker group on the hospital's software, hospital sources said. All the servers were shut down to check the damage that has been done. It was then found that the hackers file had got inserted on a server as a result of which, all files were encrypted. Several important data that were stored on the system had been damaged. The IT team informed Dr. Partha Desai, COO of the hospital, who reached the hospital and called NFSU Gandhinagar to report the matter.

Soon, the Gandhinagar team came to the hospital and started taking the image of the server and the encrypted files. Suddenly, a message appeared on the computer screen saying: "We have encrypted all your hospital data and if you want to retrieve it contact our ID". When the hacker was contacted on the displayed e-mail ID, a reply message was received. In which, the hospital was asked to pay $ 70,000 bitcoin currency.

The IT team did not respond to the message but the next day, the hospital received another mail where the hacker offered a discount on the earlier amount. The hospital authorities called the cyber safe helpline number and were asked to file a complaint at the nearest police station. Following which the IT head lodged a complaint.