Medical insurance large UnitedHealth Group has confirmed {that a} ransomware assault on its well being tech subsidiary Change Healthcare earlier this 12 months resulted in an enormous theft of Individuals’ personal healthcare knowledge.
UnitedHealth stated in a press release on Monday {that a} ransomware gang took recordsdata containing private knowledge and guarded well being data that it says might “cowl a considerable proportion of individuals in America.”
The medical insurance large didn’t say what number of Individuals are affected however stated the info evaluation was “more likely to take a number of months” earlier than the corporate would start notifying people that their data was stolen within the cyberattack.
Change Healthcare processes insurance coverage and billing for tons of of 1000’s of hospitals, pharmacies and medical practices throughout the U.S. healthcare sector; it has entry to huge quantities of well being data on about half of all Individuals.
UnitedHealth stated it had not but seen proof that docs’ charts or full medical histories had been exfiltrated from its programs.
The admission that hackers stole Individuals’ well being knowledge comes every week after a brand new hacking group started publishing parts of the stolen knowledge in an effort to extort a second ransom demand from the corporate.
The gang, which calls itself RansomHub, printed a number of recordsdata on its darkish net leak website containing private details about sufferers throughout an array of paperwork, a few of which included inner recordsdata associated to Change Healthcare. RansomHub stated it might promote the stolen knowledge except Change Healthcare paid a ransom.
In a press release offered to TechCrunch, UnitedHealth spokesperson Tyler Mason confirmed the corporate paid the cybercriminals. “A ransom was paid as a part of the corporate’s dedication to do all it may to guard affected person knowledge from disclosure.” The corporate wouldn’t affirm the quantity it paid.
RansomHub is the second gang to demand a ransom from Change Healthcare. The well being tech large reportedly paid $22 million to a Russia-based prison gang referred to as ALPHV in March, which then disappeared, stiffing the affiliate that carried out the info theft out of their portion of the ransom.
RansomHub claimed in its submit alongside the printed stolen knowledge that “we’ve the info and never ALPHV.”
In its assertion Monday, UnitedHealth acknowledged the publication of a few of the recordsdata however stopped in need of claiming possession of the paperwork. “This isn’t an official breach notification,” UnitedHealth stated.
The Wall Road Journal reported Monday that the prison hacking affiliate of ALPHV broke into Change Healthcare’s community utilizing stolen credentials for a system that enables distant entry to its community. The hackers had been in Change Healthcare’s community for greater than every week earlier than deploying ransomware, permitting the hackers to steal important quantities of knowledge from the corporate’s programs.
The cyberattack at Change Healthcare started on February 21 and resulted in ongoing widespread outages at pharmacies and hospitals throughout america. For weeks, physicians, pharmacies and hospitals couldn’t confirm affected person advantages for allotting drugs, organizing inpatient care, or processing prior authorizations vital for surgical procedures.
A lot of the U.S. healthcare system floor to a halt, with healthcare suppliers dealing with monetary strain as backlogs develop and outages linger.
UnitedHealth reported final week that the ransomware assault has value it greater than $870 million in losses. The corporate reported it made $99.8 billion in income throughout the first three months of the 12 months, faring higher than what Wall Road analysts had anticipated.
UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty, who acquired near $21 million in whole compensation the complete 12 months of 2022, is about to testify to Home lawmakers on Might 1.
Up to date with remark from UnitedHealth.
