UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest health insurance companies in the United States, recently reported that a ransomware attack on its subsidiary Change Healthcare resulted in the theft of significant amounts of personal health data belonging to a “significant portion of the population of the United States.” I made it clear that.
tech crunch report The cyberattack, which began on February 21, 2024, reportedly caused widespread disruption to pharmacies and hospitals across the country. Much of the U.S. health care system was shut down, and health care providers faced financial pressure as backlogs grew and service outages dragged on. Change Healthcare, which handles insurance and billing for numerous medical facilities, has access to vast amounts of health information on nearly half of all Americans.
UnitedHealth said the data review process is expected to take several months before the company can begin notifying affected individuals. Although the company has not yet seen evidence that doctors’ records or complete medical histories were stolen, the hackers were able to compromise files containing personal data and protected health information.
The ransomware attack was allegedly carried out by a Russia-based criminal organization called ALPHV, which reportedly received a $22 million ransom from Change Healthcare in March. But then a second hacking group, RansomHub, emerged claiming to own the stolen data and demanding additional ransom money. UnitedHealth confirmed that a second ransom was paid “as part of the company’s commitment to doing everything we can to protect patient data from compromise.”
The economic impact of the cyberattack was significant, with UnitedHealth reporting losses of more than $870 million. Nevertheless, the company generated $99.8 billion in revenue in the first three months of the year, beating Wall Street analysts’ expectations.
read more Click here for TechCrunch.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering free speech and online censorship issues.
