Priya PatelTLDR:
- Change Healthcare has been experiencing a cyberattack outage for nine days
- The attack involves the hacker group ALPHV/Blackcat and is being investigated by law enforcement and third-party consultants
In a cybersecurity saga that has now lasted nine days, Change Healthcare, a part of UnitedHealth Group, is facing an attack by the hacker group ALPHV/Blackcat. This attack was initially described as a connectivity issue before being recognized as a cyber security issue. Change Healthcare is working with law enforcement and third-party consultants to address the attack, with suspicions that Blackcat is behind it. The hacker group claimed credit for the attack on a dark web page, but the extent of data theft is yet to be confirmed.
Blackcat, a notorious hacking group, has been the subject of advisories from multiple government agencies, with a $10 million bounty for information leading to the arrest of its leaders. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has warned the healthcare sector to be vigilant, as the healthcare industry has been a frequent target of Blackcat’s attacks. Despite the impact on providers and patients, most pharmacies have found ways to work around the attack, and provider cash flows have not been significantly affected.
The incident highlights the ongoing cyber threats faced by healthcare organizations and the importance of maintaining robust cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive data and systems.
