Unfortunately, data breaches are occurring more frequently than ever before. Due to the rapid advancement of technology, many businesses lack the resources to defend their data against increasingly complex attacks, leaving them open to potential exploiters.
However, defense department procedures have improved, and incidents like the 2015 data breach that exposed the personal information of 78.8 million people are now uncommon. Until now, that is. In February 2024, pharmacies nationwide experienced problems due to a fresh ransomware outbreak. The data of 100 million people was compromised by this attachment, which was initially directed at Change Healthcare, a UnitedHealth Group company that handles financial matters for healthcare providers.
Few people anticipated this attack to be significant because UnitedHealth Group is the biggest healthcare organization in the world by revenue, and their defenses ought to have been strong enough. Unfortunately, this was not the case, and because the login credentials lacked multi-factor authentication, the attackers were able to get access to the Change Healthcare employee system.
In an assessment of the hack’s aftermath, the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance noted the widespread effects it had, including prescriptions going unfilled, hospitals and doctors not being paid, and insurance companies not being able to pay medical providers. The hack exposed the whole healthcare system, and the repercussions persisted for days.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, added his voice to the committee statement with a quote “The Change Healthcare hack is considered by many to be the biggest cybersecurity disruption to health care in American history,”
Who perpetrated the data breach
Change Healthcare verified that the BlackCat ransomware gang was responsible for the data compromise following a comprehensive investigation. In a different dark web post, the organization also claimed the attachment, stating that millions of the company’s patient and health data were among the plunder.
Anyone who has used Change Healthcare or any of its subsidiaries in the past or present should be on guard and lock down their personal information and credit to prevent unpleasant surprises. The group has not revealed its intentions or explained the purpose of the breach, but it is reasonable to assume that some of the data will be used for identity theft and other crimes.
Since the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services verified that 100 million people were affected by the data breach, it is unclear what kind of information was accessed about each of the impacted individuals. Additionally, as the business and its cybersecurity specialists continue to examine the stolen data, this number may increase even further.
Although it sounds like a misguided hope, it is also possible that fewer people were impacted by the incident because some submissions might have been duplicated or devoid of any identifying information. The truth is that data security remains one of the problems that has to be resolved on a large scale, even with the best efforts of numerous businesses.
