A ransomware assault earlier this yr on UnitedHealth-owned well being tech firm Change Healthcare seemingly stands as one of many largest information breaches of U.S. well being and medical information in historical past.
Months after the February information breach, a “substantial proportion of individuals residing in America” are receiving discover by mail that their private and well being data was stolen by cybercriminals throughout the cyberattack on Change Healthcare. No less than 100 million individuals are actually recognized to be affected by the breach.
Change Healthcare processes billing and insurance coverage for lots of of 1000’s of hospitals, pharmacies and medical practices throughout the U.S. healthcare sector. As such, it collects and shops huge quantities of extremely delicate medical information on sufferers in the US. Via a sequence of mergers and acquisitions, Change grew to become one of many largest processors of U.S. well being information, dealing with between one-third and one-half of all U.S. well being transactions.
Right here’s what has occurred for the reason that ransomware assault started.
February 21, 2024
First report of outages as safety incident emerges
It appeared like an unusual Wednesday afternoon, till it wasn’t. The outage was sudden. On February 21, billing techniques at docs workplaces and healthcare practices stopped working, and insurance coverage claims stopped processing. The standing web page on Change Healthcare’s web site was flooded with outage notifications affecting each a part of its enterprise, and later that day the corporate confirmed it was “experiencing a community interruption associated to a cyber safety challenge.” Clearly one thing had gone very mistaken.
It seems that Change Healthcare invoked its safety protocols and shut down its total community to isolate intruders it present in its techniques. That meant sudden and widespread outages throughout the healthcare sector that depends on a handful of firms — like Change Healthcare — to deal with healthcare insurance coverage and billing claims for huge swathes of the US. It was later decided that the hackers initially broke into the corporate’s techniques over per week earlier, on or round February 12.
February 29, 2024
UnitedHealth confirms it was hit by ransomware gang
After initially (and incorrectly) attributing the intrusion to hackers working for a authorities or nation-state, UnitedHealth later stated on February 29 that the cyberattack was actually the work of a ransomware gang. UnitedHealth stated the gang “represented itself to us as ALPHV/BlackCat,” an organization spokesperson instructed TechCrunch on the time. A darkish net leak website related to the ALPHV/BlackCat gang additionally took credit score for the assault, claiming to have stolen thousands and thousands of Individuals’ delicate well being and affected person data, giving the primary indication of what number of people this incident had affected.
ALPHV (aka BlackCat) is a recognized Russian-speaking ransomware-as-a-service gang. Its associates — contractors who work for the gang — break into sufferer networks and deploy malware developed by ALPHV/BlackCat’s leaders, who take a minimize of the earnings collected from the ransoms collected from victims to get their information again.
Realizing that the breach was attributable to a ransomware gang modified the equation of the assault from the type of hacking that governments do — generally to ship a message to a different authorities as an alternative of publishing thousands and thousands of individuals’s personal data — to a breach attributable to financially motivated cybercriminals, who’re more likely to make use of a wholly completely different playbook to get their payday.
March 3-5, 2024
UnitedHealth pays a ransom of $22 million to hackers, who then disappear
In early March, the ALPHV ransomware gang vanished. The gang’s leak website on the darkish net, which weeks earlier took credit score for the cyberattack, was changed with a seizure discover claiming that U.Okay. and U.S. regulation enforcement took down the gang’s website. However each the FBI and U.Okay. authorities denied taking down the ransomware gang as they’d tried months earlier. All indicators pointed to ALPHV working off with the ransom and pulling an “exit rip-off.”
In a posting, the ALPHV affiliate who carried out the hack on Change Healthcare claimed that the ALPHV management stole $22 million paid as a ransom and included a hyperlink to a single bitcoin transaction on March 3 as proof of their declare. However regardless of shedding their share of the ransom cost, the affiliate stated the stolen information is “nonetheless with us.” UnitedHealth had paid a ransom to hackers who left the info behind and disappeared.
March 13, 2024
Widespread disruption throughout U.S. healthcare amid fears of knowledge breach
In the meantime, weeks into the cyberattack, outages had been nonetheless ongoing with many unable to get their prescriptions stuffed or having to pay money out of pocket. Navy medical insurance supplier TriCare stated “all navy pharmacies worldwide” had been affected as nicely.
The American Medical Affiliation was saying there was little data from UnitedHealth and Change Healthcare concerning the ongoing outages, inflicting huge disruption that continued to ripple throughout the healthcare sector.
By March 13, Change Healthcare had obtained a “secure” copy of the stolen information that it had simply days earlier paid $22 million for. This allowed Change to start the method of poring via the dataset to find out whose data was stolen within the cyberattack, with the goal of notifying as many affected people as doable.
March 28, 2024
U.S. authorities ups its bounty to $10 million for data resulting in ALPHV seize
By late March, the U.S. authorities stated it was upping its bounty for data on key management of ALPHV/BlackCat and its associates.
By providing $10 million to anybody who can establish or find the people behind the gang, the U.S. authorities appeared to hope that one of many gang’s insiders would activate their former leaders. It additionally may very well be seen because the U.S. realizing the specter of having a big variety of Individuals’ well being data probably revealed on-line.
April 15, 2024
Contractor types new ransom gang and publishes some stolen well being information
After which there have been two — ransoms, that’s. By mid-April, the aggrieved affiliate arrange a brand new extortion racket known as RansomHub, and because it nonetheless had the info that it stole from Change Healthcare, it demanded a second ransom from UnitedHealth. In doing so, RansomHub revealed a portion of the stolen information containing what gave the impression to be personal and delicate affected person data as proof of their risk.
Ransomware gangs don’t simply encrypt information; additionally they steal as a lot information as doable and threaten to publish the information if a ransom isn’t paid. This is called “double extortion.” In some instances when the sufferer pays, the ransomware gang can extort the sufferer once more — or, in others, extort the sufferer’s clients, often called “triple extortion.”
Now that UnitedHealth was prepared to pay one ransom, there was a threat that the healthcare large could be extorted once more. It’s why regulation enforcement have lengthy advocated in opposition to paying a ransom that enables criminals to revenue from cyberattacks.
April 22, 2024
UnitedHealth says ransomware hackers stole well being information on a “substantial proportion of individuals in America”
For the primary time, UnitedHealth confirmed on April 22 — greater than two months after the ransomware assault started — that there was a knowledge breach and that it seemingly impacts a “substantial proportion of individuals in America,” with out saying what number of thousands and thousands of those who entails. UnitedHealth additionally confirmed it paid a ransom for the info however wouldn’t say what number of ransoms it in the end paid.
The corporate stated that the stolen information contains extremely delicate data, together with medical data and well being data, diagnoses, drugs, take a look at outcomes, imaging and care and therapy plans, and different private data.
Provided that Change Healthcare handles information on about one-third of everybody residing in the US, the info breach is more likely to have an effect on greater than 100 million individuals at the very least. When reached by TechCrunch, a UnitedHealth spokesperson didn’t dispute the seemingly affected quantity however stated that the corporate’s information evaluation was ongoing.
Might 1, 2024
UnitedHealth Group chief government testifies that Change wasn’t utilizing primary cybersecurity
Maybe unsurprisingly when your organization has had one of many greatest information breaches in current historical past, its chief government is certain to get known as to testify earlier than lawmakers.
That’s what occurred with UnitedHealth Group (UHG) chief government Andrew Witty, who on Capitol Hill admitted that the hackers broke into Change Healthcare’s techniques utilizing a single set password on a person account not protected with multi-factor authentication, a primary safety function that may stop password reuse assaults by requiring a second code despatched to that account holder’s cellphone.
Certainly one of the most important information breaches in U.S. historical past was totally preventable, was the important thing message. Witty stated that the info breach was more likely to have an effect on about one-third of individuals residing in America — in keeping with the corporate’s earlier estimates that the breach impacts round as many individuals that Change Healthcare processes healthcare claims for.
June 20, 2024
UHG begins notifying affected hospitals and medical suppliers what information was stolen
It took Change Healthcare till June 20 to start formally notifying affected people that their data was stolen, as legally required below a regulation generally often called HIPAA, seemingly delayed partly by the sheer dimension of the stolen dataset.
The corporate revealed a discover disclosing the info breach and stated that it might start notifying people it had recognized within the “secure” copy of the stolen information. However Change stated it “can not affirm precisely” what information was stolen about every particular person and that the data might range from individual to individual. Change says it was posting the discover on its web site, because it “might not have enough addresses for all affected people.”
The incident was so massive and complicated that the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies stepped in and stated that affected healthcare suppliers, whose sufferers are in the end affected by the breach, can ask UnitedHealth to inform affected sufferers on their behalf, an effort seen at lessening the burden on smaller suppliers whose funds had been hit amid the continued outage.
July 29, 2024
Change Healthcare begins notifying recognized affected people by letter
The well being tech large confirmed in late June that it might start notifying these whose healthcare information was stolen in its ransomware assault on a rolling foundation. That course of started in late July.
The letters going out to affected people will almost certainly come from Change Healthcare, if not the particular healthcare supplier affected by the hack at Change. The letter confirms what varieties of knowledge was stolen, together with medical information and medical insurance data, and claims and cost data, which Change stated contains monetary and banking data.
October 24, 2024
UnitedHealth confirms at the very least 100 million individuals affected by information breach
It took the medical insurance large greater than eight months to announce, however it has now confirmed that the info breach impacts greater than 100 million people. The variety of these affected is predicted to rise, given some have obtained information breach notifications as not too long ago as October. The U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies reported the up to date quantity on its information breach portal on October 24.
Because it stands, the info breach at Change Healthcare is now the most important digital theft of U.S. medical data, and one of many greatest information breaches in residing historical past.
