A cyberattack on UnitedHealth’s tech unit, Change, has compromised the personal information of approximately 100 million individuals, making it the largest healthcare data breach in US history, according to the US Department of Health & Human Services.
This breach, reported in October, is significant in scale, with UnitedHealth previously indicating that hackers may have stolen data from one-third of the US population.
The breach occurred in February and was attributed to a hacking group known as ALPHV, or “BlackCat.” UnitedHealth first disclosed the incident on February 21, 2023, leading to widespread disruptions in claims processing for both patients and healthcare providers across the country.
As part of its notification obligations, UnitedHealth began informing potentially impacted patients in June. The data exposed in the breach may include sensitive information such as health insurance member IDs, patient diagnoses, treatment details, social security numbers, and billing codes used by healthcare providers.
In a recent statement, UnitedHealth confirmed that the investigation into the breach is nearing completion, and the company is continuing to notify individuals affected by the incident. The health insurer has also forecast a business disruption impact of approximately $705 million due to the hack, which has led to significant challenges in payment processing and other operational areas.
Additionally, the company has provided billions of dollars in loans to healthcare providers impacted by the breach and has incurred costs related to notifying customers about the data exposure. The 2015 breach at Anthem, now known as Elevance Health, previously held the record for the largest healthcare data breach, affecting nearly 79 million people.
With input from Reuters.
