Pierluigi Paganini
January 26, 2025
The Change Healthcare data breach is worse than initially estimated, the incident has impacted 190 million people.
In October 2024, UnitedHealth Group announced that the data breach suffered by Change Healthcare in February 2024 impacted more than 100 million individuals.
On February 21, a cyber attack disrupted IT operation of the healthcare organization, and more than 100 Change Healthcare applications were impacted. The incident impacted thousands of pharmacies and healthcare providers.
“Change Healthcare can confirm we are experiencing a cybersecurity issue perpetrated by a cybercrime threat actor who has represented itself to us as ALPHV/Blackcat.” reads an update published by the company on February 29, 2024.
“Our experts are working to address the matter and we are working closely with law enforcement and leading third-party consultants, Mandiant and Palo Alto Network, on this attack against Change Healthcare’s systems”
Compromised data includes names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, driver’s license or state ID numbers, Social Security numbers, diagnosis and treatment information, medical record numbers, billing codes, insurance member IDs, and other types of information.
According to the Associated Press, UnitedHealth booked $1.1 billion in total costs from the cyberattack in the second quarter.
In early March, the Alphv/BlackCat ransomware gang claimed responsibility for the attack and added the company to its Tor leak site.
After a law enforcement takedown, BlackCat raised affiliate fees to 90% to quickly resume operations. However, after a $22 million transaction, an affiliate publicly complained on a Russian cybercrime forum, alleging that BlackCat did not pay their fee.
The affiliate said BlackCat withheld their payment after a Change Healthcare ransom, despite possessing terabytes of stolen data. BlackCat countered, stating law enforcement forced them to shut down, with their leak site now displaying a takedown notice.
The affiliate claimed that UnitedHealth had paid a $22 million ransom. A month later, a second ransomware gang, the RansomHub group, also attempted to extort the healthcare company.
In October, Change Healthcare provided an update to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) revealing that the incident impacted 100 million individuals.
The Wall Street Journal reported that UnitedHealth Group has provided a new update on the impact of the data breach, which impacted “approximately 190 million.”
“Hackers stole sensitive information belonging to around 190 million people in a cyberattack on a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary last year that roiled the U.S. healthcare industry, the company said Friday.” reported the Wall Street Journal. “The final estimate is far greater than previous guesses from the healthcare giant, whose Change Healthcare unit was crippled by the attack for weeks, halting vast amounts of insurance payments to providers. Andrew Witty, the company’s chief executive, said in congressional testimony in May that UnitedHealth expected around one-third of Americans to be affected by the breach. The final figure represents well over half of the U.S. population.”
The figure is alarming: the 2024 cyberattack on the insurance giant exposed the private data of over half the U.S.
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