Tag: ICMR

e-hospital facility at AIIMS

Around 6000 Attempts Made To Hack ICMR On Nov 30

By LokMarg

Even as e-hospital facility at AIIMS has witnessed a cyber attack, over 6,000 attempts were made to hack the server of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on November 30 but these were prevented, official sources said.

The sources said that the ICMR website is safe and noted that the firewall is regularly updated. They said hackers’ IPs were traced to a blacklisted IP based in Hong Kong.
“The site is hosted at NIC Data Centre, the firewall is from NIC (National Informatics Centre) and is regularly updated. NIC was informed through email regarding a cyber attack and has reported that the attack was prevented. ICMR has found the website in the order,” a source said.

The sources said hackers “tried to hack ICMR website 6000 times on November 30”.

“Hackers’ IPs were traced to a blacklisted IP based in Hong Kong. The website, however, couldn’t be hacked because of updated firewall and enhanced security measures being adopted,” the source said.

Official sources said cyber-attack strategies are constantly evolving and securing cyberinfrastructure and data is a dynamic process.

The sources said that the ICMR website did not witness any downtime following the cyberattack. However, they noted that similar attacks by hackers on ICMR cyberinfrastructure are regular and cyber security infrastructure needs to be strengthened.

“The current news is regarding an attempted attack on the ICMR website that was prevented by the firewall/security measures of NIC. The contents of the website have been checked and found safe. The website did not witness any downtime,” the source said.

“However, similar attacks by hackers on ICMR cyberinfrastructure are regular; hence, cyber security infrastructure needs to be updated and strengthened to prevent future damage. There are limited vendors under the Make-In-India category for state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure such as Network switches, Access Points, Storage, etc., accordingly possibilities of other options will also be explored,” the source added.

The sources said that the Secretary of, the Department of Health Research (DHR) and the Director General of ICMR reviewed cyber infrastructure and security practices at ICMR on December 2.

It was briefed that the website of ICMR is hosted in the NIC cloud after a security audit by a CERT-IN empaneled agency.

“The website is protected by NIC firewall and other security measures. ICMR also in-house hosts web and data portals of various programmes of ICMR. The in-house infrastructure is protected by a customized open-source firewall (PFSense). Further, inbound and outbound internet traffic is strictly controlled and regularly monitored for any suspicious activity on all the active interfaces. DHR regularly issues advisories regarding cyber-security practices to all the ICMR institutes and centres,” the source said.

Safdarjung hospital had said last week that the hospital was hit by a cyberattack in the middle of November but there was not much impact on services as the OPD process is run manually.

“There was a cyber attack, our server was also down in November for a single day but data was secured. The matter was handled by the National informatics Centre (NIC) to revive the systems,” Medical Superintendent, Safdarjung Hospital, Dr. BL Sherwal had said.

“According to my knowledge it wasn’t ransomware,” he added. Another official from the hospital said that IP was blocked.

Services at AIIMS New Delhi continue to be conducted manually following a cyber hack in its e-hospital facility on November 23.

AIIMS authorities said that e-hospital services are likely to start middle of this week. Sources said about 4000 computers have been scanned and anti-virus has been uploaded for additional safety. (ANI)

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Centre Forms 4-Member Team To Probe WHO Claims On Maiden Pharma

By LokMarg

The Central Government on Wednesday formed a four-member expert committee to investigate the report sent by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the deaths of 66 children in the Gambia by consumption of cough syrups from Sonipat-based company Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited, said official sources.

“Government is alert and formed a committee. Production of cough syrups by Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd has been suspended, and a lab report is awaited. Four-member expert committee has been formed to investigate the report sent by WHO,” official sources told ANI.
A committee comprising technical experts Dr. YK Gupta, Vice Chairperson, Standing National Committee on Medicines (chair); Dr. Pragya Yadav, ICMR -NIV, Pune; Dr. Arti Bahl, Division of epidemiology, NCDC, New Delhi, and AK Pradhan, JDC(I), CDSCO has been formed.

According to the reports, Atlanta-based Atlantic Pharmaceuticals Company Ltd which has permission to export medicines to the Gambia ordered combined syrups bottles which were purchased from Maiden Pharmaceuticals limited.

“From the preliminary inquiry of Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), it has been made out that Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd is a manufacturer licensed by the State Drug Controller for the product’s Promethazine Oral Solution BP, Kofexnalin Baby cough syrup, MaKoff Baby Cough Syrup and MaGrip n Cold Syrup under reference, and holds manufacturing permission for these products for export only,” the sources said.

The company has manufactured and exported these products only to the Gambia.

“It is a usual practice that the importing country tests such imported medicines on quality parameters, and satisfies itself as to the quality of the products before the importing country decides to release such products for usage in the country. In the present case, it is yet not clear whether these medicines were tested in the Gambia before release,” the sources added.

The WHO has informed that as per the tentative results received by WHO, out of the 23 samples of the products under reference which was tested, four samples have been found to contain Diethylene Glycol or Ethylene glycol.

“WHO has not yet made available a certificate of analysis. It has informed that the same will be made available in near future,” the sources said.

The top officials informed that the exact “one-to-one causal relation of death” has not been provided by WHO to CDSCO although CDSCO has requested WHO twice in this regard.

Earlier in the day, the Haryana government has ordered a halt to the total production of cough syrups from Sonipat-based company Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited.

The company has also been issued a show cause notice for 12 violations found at its manufacturing plant.

State health minister Anil Vij told ANI on Wednesday, “The samples of three drugs of the Sonipat-based pharmaceutical company, which were mentioned by WHO, have been sent to Central Drug Laboratory in Kolkata. The report is yet to come. We will take action only after the report comes. After a joint inspection by Central and State officials, 12 violations were found in the manufacturing facility. … It has been decided to shut down total production. We have sent a notice in this regard.”

The pharma company had come under scanner following the death of 66 children who had consumed the cough syrup in the Gambia.

World Health Organization (WHO) on October 5 issued a medical product alert over four India-made cough and cold syrups manufactured by Maiden Pharmaceuticals. WHO has also notified that the same cough and cold syrups could be linked to the deaths of 66 children in the Gambia. (ANI)

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