Description

UnitedHealth has confirmed that over 100 million individuals had their personal information and healthcare data compromised in a ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, making it one of the largest healthcare data breaches to date. In may, UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty informed Congress that "possibly a third" of all Americans' health data might have been compromised. A subsequent notification from Change Healthcare indicated that the February attack affected a significant portion of the U.S. population. On October 22, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights updated its data breach portal to reflect that approximately 100 million notifications regarding this incident have been issued. The breach involved sensitive information, including health insurance details, medical records, billing and payment information, and personal identifiers such as Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses. The scope of the compromised data varies by individual. The attack, attributed to the BlackCat (ALPHV) group, exploited unprotected credentials and lacked multi-factor authentication. During the breach, 6 TB of data was stolen, leading to widespread disruptions in healthcare services. Furthermore, UnitedHealth reportedly paid a ransom of about $22 million to regain access to their data, but the attackers did not delete the stolen information as promised. Following this, a new group, Ransom Hub, threatened to leak additional data unless further payments were made. As of April, United Health estimated losses from the attack at $872 million, a figure that has since risen to an anticipated $2.45 billion for the nine months ending September 30, 2024.