NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 26: Vital data on infectious and communicable diseases has been stolen along with the hard disks on which it was stored from within the premises of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi.Hard disks from nine computers were systematically removed on the night of November 10 from the desktop personal computers of the Epidemiological and Communicable Diseases (ECD) unit of the ICMR. The disks had both published and unpublished data that had been painstakingly collated over many years by the division.Data from 16 centers of the ICMR was funneled into this particular division and it even included raw data on diseases like AIDS, malaria, plague and tuberculosis that afflict India.Lalit Kant, head of ECD at ICMR, says he is ``heartbroken'' since data collected through many years of effort has now been lost. He is quick to add that all is not lost since the individual data sets are replicated in the countrywide centers of ICMR but it would take a lot of effort to put it together in such a large and unique databank.Thieves systematically dismembered functional computers after breaking open locks from many different rooms within the secure building of ICMR. They did not touch any of the other more expensive equipment which were lying around and nor did they target the main bio-informatics computer centre of ICMR which is situated on the ground floor. Kant says the thieves were after the data since the resale value of used and dated hard disks is negligible and feels it could well be a very well-planned insider job since the robbers knew exactly which computer to target.A police case has been registered and officials at ICMR are at a loss while trying to explain as to what use this data can be put to. Kant feels ``peer jealousy'' can be a motivating factor. His division has been literally put back by years and ``creating unnecessary harassment'' for workers at ECD could be the main reason behind this nocturnal attack, he thinks.But some experts speculate that ICMR could even have been targeted by foreign agents specialising in biological warfare. The data stolen from ICMR could provide enough stuff for anyone who is looking at the chinks in India's natural armor against infectious diseases and genomic immunity levels.V. Ramalingaswami, a pathologist and emeritus professor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, and the chair of the expert panel which investigated the plague outbreak of 1994 says: ``I can't see any value of this data other than for a specialist and God knows what all they had stored on these hard disks.''Nirmal Kumar Ganguly, a microbiologist and director general of ICMR, is not unduly alarmed by this theft and says ``no sensitive data has been lost'' and feels it is the handiwork of some small-time thieves who knew the geography and vulnerability of the place. Ganguly says that as a precautionary measure visitor access has been greatly restricted, security has been tightened on the periphery of India's premier medical research agency.
