U.S. health insurance juggernaut UnitedHealth Group revealed on Thursday that its subsidiary Change Healthcare had fallen victim to a cyberattack likely orchestrated by a nation state.
In a filing submitted to government regulators, UnitedHealth Group acknowledged that the ongoing cybersecurity incident impacting Change Healthcare is attributed to state-sponsored hackers. However, the company admitted that it has no estimate for when its systems will be operational again.
The filing did not specifically name the nation or government behind the attack, nor did it provide any evidence to support the accusation.
A spokesperson for the company did not respond to a request for comment at the time of this article’s writing.
“Change Healthcare is responsible for processing billions of healthcare transactions annually and handles around one-third of all patient records in the United States, which translates to approximately 100 million Americans.”
The cyberattack, which was first detected early Wednesday, has resulted in widespread outages for Change Healthcare’s systems, as reported by the company’s incident tracker.
As a key player in the U.S. healthcare system, Change Healthcare provides vital patient billing services. It is currently unclear what specific methods the hackers used in the attack.
Pharmacies across the country have been impacted by the attack, with many experiencing difficulties in processing prescriptions through patients’ insurance.
TechCrunch spoke with several individuals in the healthcare industry who have been affected by the outage, reporting delays and downtime in their work as a result of the cyberattack.
In response to the incident, UnitedHealth Group has taken swift action, bringing in top security experts and cooperating with law enforcement. The company has also reached out to affected customers, clients, and government agencies.
Stay tuned for updates on this developing story.
