Change Healthcare Data Breach Impact Grows to 190 Million Individuals

Summary: UnitedHealth Group has announced that approximately 190 million individuals were affected by the Change Healthcare data breach following a ransomware attack in February 2024, making it the largest healthcare data breach of the year. Initially estimated at 100 million, the revised figure underscores the extent of the breach. The cyberattack involved compromised credentials and resulted in the exfiltration of sensitive patient data over a nine-day period before ransomware was deployed.

Affected: UnitedHealth Group, Change Healthcare

Keypoints :

• The breach is regarded as the largest healthcare data breach of 2024.
• Approximately 190 million individuals were impacted, up from an earlier estimate of 100 million.
• Compromised credentials and lack of multi-factor authentication were exploited by the attackers.
• UnitedHealth paid a million ransom to mitigate the risk of data leakage.
• Potential losses from the breach are estimated at nearly .9 billion.