United has confirmed Ransomware’s attack on his health care change unit last February, affected about 190 million people in America – almost double the previous estimates.
The US health insurance giant confirmed the latest number for Techcrunch on Friday after the markets were closed.
“The change of health care has determined the total estimated number of individuals affected by the Internet attack on health care change is approximately 190 million,” said Tyler Mason, a spokesman for United Group in an email for Techcrunch. “The vast majority of those people have already been given individual or substitute announcement. The final number will be confirmed and submitted to the Civil Rights Office at a later date. “
The spokesman for United said the company was unaware of any misuse of individuals’ information as a result of this incident and did not see the electronic databases of medical records appearing in data during the analysis. “
February 2024 online is the largest violation of medical data in US history and caused months of interruption throughout the US health care system. Change Healthcare, a giant of health technology and a branch of United, is one of the largest health holders, medical data and patient data; Also one of the largest processors of healthcare claims in the United States.
Data violation resulted in stealing massive amounts of health and insurance information, some of which were published online by hackers that demanded responsibility for the violation. The change of health care then paid at least two rewards to prevent further publication of stolen files.
UNITEHEALTH previously established the number of individuals affected in about 100 million people when the company presented its preliminary analysis at the Civil Rights Office, the unit under the US Health and Human Department investigating data violations.
In his announcement of data violation, Change Healthcare said cyber criminals stole names and address, birth dates, phone numbers, email addresses and government identity documents, which included social security numbers, numbers E driver’s license and passport numbers. Stolen health data also include diagnoses, medicines, test results, images, and care and treatment plans, as well as health insurance information. The change said the data also include financial and banking information found in patients’ claims.
The violation is attributed to the Alphv Ransomware gang, a group of Russian cybercrime. According to the testimony by the General Director of United Group, Andrew Witty for lawmakers last year, hackers entered the change systems using a stolen account credential, which was not protected by multi-factor certificate.
