The UnitedHealth cyberattack earlier this year has resulted in the largest healthcare data breach in U.S. history, compromising the data of 100 million American citizens. The breach targeted UnitedHealth’s Change Healthcare unit, with information such as names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, and emails being exposed. Additionally, sensitive health information like insurance details, medical records, diagnoses, medications, and more were also compromised.
The total estimated cost of the cyberattack is now $2.87 billion, up from the initial estimate of $2.45 billion. UnitedHealth CEO confirmed that the hackers did not make copies of protected data or upload it to the internet. The breach occurred due to the lack of multifactor authentication on a critical server.
UnitedHealth, based in Minneapolis, is the largest health carrier in the U.S., serving 149 million individuals. The impact of the Change Healthcare cyberattack on the healthcare sector is significant, as the firm processes billions of healthcare transactions annually.
According to a survey by the American Medical Association, respondents faced challenges with patient eligibility verification, claim submissions, and payment disruptions following the breach. The healthcare industry is a common target for cyberattacks, with hospitals and patients being frequent victims of ransomware attacks.
The American Hospital Association highlighted the vulnerability of healthcare entities to cyberattacks due to the high value of stolen information. Stolen health records can be sold at a higher price than credit card numbers, leading to significant costs for healthcare organizations to address security incidents. Please rewrite this sentence.
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