New Delhi, Dec 12 (IANS): Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday urged the government to ensure protection of sensitive personal data and take measures to prevent cyber attacks similar to the one launched on AIIMS Delhi's servers.

Raising the AIIMS cyber attack issue in the Lok Sabha, the lawmaker from Thiruvananthapuram said that the matter should be thoroughly investigated.

"It also reflects the weak data protection safeguards in our country, especially by government institutions. The Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 had created a special category of sensitive personal data including health data that required stringent safeguards but this has unfortunately been done away with in the new draft bill released by the government," he said.

He called upon the IT and Electronics Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to take necessary action to ensure that such data breaches don't take place again.

Raising the matter of urgent public importance in the lower house, Tharoor said that though the origin and intent of the AIIMS cyber attack are yet to be ascertained, the government, he hoped, would take the House into confidence on steps taken to ensure that such incidents don't occur in future.