Hackers Who Took Down UnitedHealth Said They Stole Millions Of Records—Later Delete Statement

In the latest development in the UnitedHealth hack case, the hackers who allegedly carried out the attack posted a statement on their darknet site claiming to have stolen millions of records including health insurance and medical history details from UnitedHealth-8 terabytes of data to be precise.

However, the statement was soon deleted. Since the statement was not backed by any evidence or screenshot, we couldn't verify their claims.

The group has been identified as Blackcat or ALPHV who also claimed to have stolen data of the U.S. military medical health agency Tricare, CVS Health, and Medicare through this attack.

UnitedHealth-the company that helps countless pharmacies across the country to smoothly process prescriptions-was taken down in a cyberattack a week ago.

The attack primarily focused on the Change Health unit following which several pharmacies posted their struggle with processing prescriptions online and reaching out to the patient's insurance company for payment. Most of them had to return to pen and paper and many citizens had to pay for their medicines out of pocket.

Read More: Health data of 4.1 million Americans compromised in major IBM breach

How Did The Victims React To This Now Deleted Statement?

CVS has acknowledged the statement and said that while it is aware of it, they are not sure whether the data of its patients were compromised.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Tricare (who has already accepted that their military pharmacies were hit by this attack) were not available for comment.

It also might have been a tactic to scare UnitedHealth into making the first contact and asking for their demands.

A threat analyst with cybersecurity firm Emsisoft Brett Callow feels that it might be because UnitedHealth has started negotiating a ransom with them. If the victim complies with the demands of the hacker, they usually delete public statements.

We don't know whether there has been any contact between UnitedHealth and Blackcat-but if not, then the group probably deleted the statement to avoid getting too much attention from the authorities at this point.

Read More: Hackers steal data of over 11 million HCA healthcare patients, putting them on sale

The Effect Of The Attack On Day To Day Businesses

The condition has not improved much since the first day of the attack. The healthcare industry is still suffering and operations have slowed down, especially for those who practice privately.

For example, a psychotherapist from Maryland who treats trauma patients said that if this goes on for too long, she might have to give up her office space. That's because although she has been filing her bills manually, she's not sure when she'll get paid-the speed and reliance that came with UnitedHealth are not the same as manual billing.

Similarly, an allergist from New York said that without an online system for submitting insurance claims, the burden falls on the practitioner to figure out an alternative and manage both the patients and the financial side. She hasn't been able to file any claim in the past week. All in all, the lack of an efficient payment system is just not sustainable.

Chief executive of Health First Advisory, Carter Groome whose clientele includes many big healthcare companies said that this outage is costing the industry an average of $100 million per day.

Sharing their side of the story, representatives from Change Health Care said that they have been closely working with their customers to ensure each patient gets the care they need. The ones who are most affected are those who have disconnected from our systems and/or have not chosen to execute workarounds."

Joe Biden Issues Executive Order on International Data Protection

The growing instances of cyberattacks have now reached the White House's ears. At what couldn't be a better time, President Joe Biden has issued a new exercise order to increase data protection by cutting back on the mass transfer of sensitive data to troubled countries.

It includes biometric, financial, genomic, geological, and health data as well as anything that can be used to identify an individual.

Data transfer doesn't always happen illegally. Sometimes, tons of user data is sold through data brokers very legally to countries of concern or organizations that are connected to those countries.

The government has finally recognized that this age-old practice can actually be exploited by miscreants who might pry into the personal lives of citizens or forward this data to foreign intelligence agencies and has taken a step to stop it.

While this initiative might not directly help the UnitedHealth hack, it will certainly minimize the number of ways user data gets out of the country in the future.

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