There is now a one in three likelihood that your private financial and health data is within the possession of criminals or terrorists who can now use it to rob or defraud you.
This estimate was made by Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealth Group (UHG), in Testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Their vulnerability is the results of a serious cyberattack on Change Healthcare (CHC), a UnitedHealth Group company, that occurred on February 24. Change manages insurance and pharmacy claims processing, payments to providers, and treatment authorizations. Although the attack caused immediate chaos within the healthcare industry, the impact on individuals is just now becoming clear.
What you’ll be able to do
If you suspect you’ll have been compromised by the Change cyberattack, the corporate will cover the associated fee of two years of credit monitoring and identity protection services.
In addition, CHC recommends repeatedly reviewing financial and health information, including:
- Review medical health insurance statements for charges for unauthorized or fictitious treatments. If you discover any inaccurate information, it’s best to contact your medical health insurance company or health care provider.
- Check bank statements, bank card statements, credit reports and tax returns for unauthorized activity. Any misinformation ought to be reported to your bank or the suitable agency or credit company.
Change also offers live support Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to eight:00 p.m. CT at 1-866-262-5342.
In addition, the corporate has established online resources at changecybersupport.com.
Impact on healthcare
Change processes about half of all medical claims within the United Statessays a lawsuit from 2022. This corresponds to services for around 900,000 doctors, 118,000 dentists, 33,000 pharmacies, 5,500 hospitals and 600 laboratories.
The platform processes about 15 billion transactions per 12 months value $1.5 trillion.
The cyberattack on Change brought much of the healthcare industry to a standstill, but United Healthcare reported this month that almost all of its services had been restored. The company has also provided $9 billion prematurely payments and interest-free loans to providers.
Impacts on the healthcare system included:
- A backlog of unpaid claims arose, which led to liquidity problems for medical practices and hospitals.
- Preventing or delaying the redemption of prescriptions.
- Making it difficult or unimaginable to submit claims or confirm eligibility.
- Delay in patient care and reimbursement.
Change has notified healthcare providers, insurance firms and related organizations that patient data was stolen within the cyberattack. The company has begun sending notifications to potentially affected individuals in recent days.
Cyber attack steals huge amounts of information
CHC says the The data disclosed may include::
- Personal contact information, including addresses and dates of birth.
- Health insurance information, including member/group ID numbers and Medicare or Medicaid ID numbers.
- Health information, including medical record numbers, care providers, diagnoses, medications, test results, and pictures.
- Billing, accounts receivable and payment information, including bank details and outstanding balances.
- Other personal information, including social security numbers, driver’s license/national identification card numbers, and passport numbers.
In April, the hacker group RansomHub began offering information from the CHC hack on the market on the dark web, in line with Dark Web Informer, which monitors hacker activity. In one post, the group claimed to have individual medical and dental records, health records of energetic military personnel, insurance records, and addresses and social security numbers of people.
“Most US citizens out there who doubt us probably have their personal data,” RansomHub wrote.
UnitedHealth profits rise despite cyberattack
UnitedHealth Group reported that its losses from the cyberattack exceeded $1.1 billion in the primary quarter and estimates that total costs for the 12 months may very well be as high as $2.45 billion.
At the identical time, the healthcare giant is swimming in money. In a second-quarter earnings report last week, UnitedHealth posted a profit of $4.2 billion on revenue of $98.9 billion.
The financial picture is rosy, although UnitedHealth paid $22 million in Bitcoin as ransom demanded by the attacker ALPHV/BlackCat Ransomware Group.
How it happened
In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, Witty said: Stolen credentials were used to access a server that didn’t use multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Multi-factor authentication is common when accessing web sites. You’ve probably logged right into a financial website before that takes your username and password after which sends you a code via SMS or email to finish your access. That’s multi-factor authentication.
UHC acquired Change in October 2022. Much of the corporate’s technology was outdated, in line with Willy, so UHC was within the strategy of updating that technology when the attack occurred.
“We were in the process of upgrading the technology we had acquired,” Witty said. “But there was a server there that, to my great disappointment, was not protected by MFA. Through that server, the cybercriminals were able to gain access to Change. And then they carried out what was essentially a ransomware attack that encrypted and froze large parts of the system.”
Lawsuit filed against United Health
On Monday, the National Community Pharmacists Association and several other dozen providers in several Lawsuit filed against UHC, CHC and UHC subsidiary OptimumThe class motion lawsuit accuses UHC and its subsidiaries of failing to take precautions against a possible cyberattack and of misleading customers in regards to the security of their network.
The lawsuit states:
“Because Defendants shut down the Change Platform, many healthcare providers lost their primary (and in some cases, their only) source for processing patient claims and did not receive payments. Healthcare providers were forced to bear these upfront costs. In addition to losses from missed payments, many pharmacies were forced to take out loans or use their reserves to purchase expensive new software.”
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