United Health confirms the largest ever US healthcare data breach: information was stolen from 100 million users

Number of people affected by health change ransomware The attack, which took place in early 2024, is now believed to have affected around 100 million people, new reports have confirmed.

the attack on Change Healthcare occurred in February 2024.and is now considered the most devastating ransomware attack to ever hit the US healthcare industry after the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights updated the number on its data breach portal to 100 million.

“On October 22, 2024, Change Healthcare notified OCR that approximately 100 million individual notifications had been issued regarding this violation,” the Office of Civil Rights said on its FAQ page.

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As a result of the attack, an affiliate of the dreaded ransomware organization ALPHV (also known as BlackCat) hacked Change Healthcare and stole 6 TB of sensitive customer data.

The stolen information included health insurance information (health insurance plans and policies, insurance companies, various identification numbers, Medicaid-Medicare-public payer identification numbers), medical information (medical record numbers, diagnoses, tests and results, care and treatment data, medications). , billing, claims and payment information (claim numbers, account numbers, payment card numbers, financial and banking information, etc.), and other personal information (social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, etc.).

Change Healthcare ended up paying a $22 million ransom in exchange for the data. The money never reached the branches responsible for the attack, but was instead captured by ransomware operators (who were only supposed to receive a portion of the payment), who later shut down their infrastructure and disappeared, leaving the data with the branch.

This branch later started its own ransomware distribution operation and is today known as RansomHub. Since RansomHub never published the stolen data, many speculate that a second ransom may have been paid.

The cyberattack caused outrage throughout the healthcare system, preventing doctors and pharmacies from filing claims and preventing pharmacies from accepting discount cards.

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