A February 2024 ransomware assault on UnitedHealth-owned well being tech firm Change Healthcare stands as the biggest information breach of well being and medical information in U.S. historical past.
Change Healthcare confirmed in January 2025 that its information breach impacts roughly 190 million individuals in America, nearly double the corporate’s earlier estimate.
The firm stated it has notified thousands and thousands of people by mail that their private and well being info was stolen by cybercriminals, and printed a separate public discover for anybody whose contact info couldn’t be discovered.
Change Healthcare processes billing and insurance coverage for a whole lot of hundreds of hospitals, pharmacies and medical practices throughout the U.S. healthcare sector. As such, the corporate collects and shops huge quantities of extremely delicate medical information on sufferers within the United States. Following a sequence of company mergers and acquisitions, Change Healthcare grew to become one of many greatest processors of U.S. well being information, dealing with as many as half of all U.S. well being transactions.
Here’s what has occurred because the ransomware assault started.
February 21, 2024
First report of outages as safety incident emerges
It appeared like an atypical Wednesday afternoon, till it wasn’t. The outage was sudden. On February 21, billing methods at docs places of work 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 subject.” Clearly one thing had gone very mistaken.
It seems that Change Healthcare invoked its safety protocols and shut down its whole community to isolate intruders it present in its methods. That meant sudden and widespread outages throughout the healthcare sector that depends on a handful of corporations — like Change Healthcare — to deal with healthcare insurance coverage and billing claims for huge swathes of the United States. It was later decided that the hackers initially broke into the corporate’s methods over every 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 the truth is the work of a ransomware gang. UnitedHealth stated the gang “represented itself to us as ALPHV/BlackCat,” an organization spokesperson advised 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 Americans’ delicate well being and affected person info, 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 income collected from the ransoms collected from victims to get their recordsdata again.
Knowing 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 non-public info — to a breach attributable to financially motivated cybercriminals, who’re prone to make use of a completely totally 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.Ok. and U.S. regulation enforcement took down the gang’s website. But each the FBI and U.Ok. authorities denied taking down the ransomware gang as that they had tried months earlier. All indicators pointed to ALPHV operating 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. But 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 information breach
Meanwhile, 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. Military medical insurance supplier TriCare stated “all army pharmacies worldwide” had been affected as properly.
The American Medical Association was saying there was little info 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 acquired 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 by means of the dataset to find out whose info was stolen within the cyberattack, with the intention of notifying as many affected people as attainable.
March 28, 2024
U.S. authorities ups its bounty to $10 million for info resulting in ALPHV seize
By late March, the U.S. authorities stated it was upping its bounty for info on key management of ALPHV/BlackCat and its associates.
By providing $10 million to anybody who can determine 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 might be seen because the U.S. realizing the specter of having a major variety of Americans’ well being info doubtlessly printed on-line.
April 15, 2024
Contractor kinds new ransom gang and publishes some stolen well being information
And then 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 printed a portion of the stolen recordsdata containing what gave the impression to be non-public and delicate affected person information as proof of their risk.
Ransomware gangs don’t simply encrypt recordsdata; in addition they steal as a lot information as attainable and threaten to publish the recordsdata 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, referred to as “triple extortion.”
Now that UnitedHealth was prepared to pay one ransom, there was a danger that the healthcare large could be extorted once more. It’s why regulation enforcement have lengthy advocated towards paying a ransom that permits 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 doubtless impacts a “substantial proportion of individuals in America,” with out saying what number of thousands and thousands of people 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 firm stated that the stolen information contains extremely delicate info, together with medical information and well being info, diagnoses, medicines, take a look at outcomes, imaging and care and therapy plans, and different private info.
Given that Change Healthcare handles information on as many as half of everybody residing within the United States, the info breach is prone to have an effect on greater than 100 million individuals no less than. When reached by TechCrunch, a UnitedHealth spokesperson didn’t dispute the doubtless affected quantity however stated that the corporate’s information evaluate was ongoing.
May 1, 2024
UnitedHealth Group chief government testifies that Change wasn’t utilizing primary cybersecurity
Perhaps unsurprisingly when your organization has had one of many greatest information breaches in latest historical past, its chief government is sure 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 methods utilizing a single set password on a consumer account not protected with multi-factor authentication, a primary safety function that may forestall password reuse assaults by requiring a second code despatched to that account holder’s telephone.
One of the most important information breaches in U.S. historical past was fully preventable, was the important thing message. Witty stated that the info breach was prone to have an effect on about one-third of individuals residing in America — consistent 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 info was stolen, as legally required underneath a regulation generally referred to as HIPAA, doubtless delayed partially by the sheer dimension of the stolen dataset.
The firm printed 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. But 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 ample addresses for all affected people.”
The incident was so large and sophisticated that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 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 continuing 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 probably come from Change Healthcare, if not the particular healthcare supplier affected by the hack at Change. The letter confirms what varieties of information was stolen, together with medical information and medical insurance info, and claims and cost info, which Change stated contains monetary and banking info.
A spokesperson for UnitedHealth advised TechCrunch that the info evaluate was in its “last levels.”
October 24, 2024
UnitedHealth confirms no less than 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 acquired information breach notifications as lately as October. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported the up to date quantity on its information breach portal on October 24.
As it stands, the info breach at Change Healthcare is now the biggest digital theft of U.S. medical information, and one of many greatest information breaches in residing historical past.
December 16, 2024
New particulars about Change hack emerge in Nebraska lawsuit
The state of Nebraska filed a lawsuit towards Change Healthcare in December, accusing the well being tech large of safety failings that led to the large breach of no less than 100 million individuals in America. New particulars concerning the hack emerged within the state’s grievance, together with that the ALPHV hackers initially broke in utilizing the stolen username and password of a “low-level buyer assist worker,” which wasn’t protected with multi-factor authentication. The state’s grievance additionally accuses Change Healthcare of getting poorly segmented IT methods, which allowed the hackers to journey freely between servers as soon as inside the corporate’s firewall.
UnitedHealth Group, which owns Change Healthcare, advised TechCrunch that the corporate was nonetheless within the “last levels” of notifying people affected by the info breach (the identical factor it advised us in July), suggesting that the variety of Americans affected by the info breach can be far larger than the 100 million disclosed to date.
January 24, 2025
Change Healthcare says 190 million individuals in America affected by information breach
On a Friday night nearly a yr after the cyberattack, UnitedHealth confirmed that the variety of individuals in America who had non-public well being info stolen within the information breach stands at 190 million, greater than half of the inhabitants of the United States. The healthcare insurance coverage large stated it deliberate to inform the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services of the up to date determine, as required by regulation, at a later date.
Millions of persons are affected by the breach, even when they didn’t have UnitedHealthcare insurance coverage, given the large quantities of medical information and billion transactions that Change Healthcare processes throughout the U.S. healthcare system daily.
