Security News
Change Healthcare has taken the first steps toward a full recovery from the ransomware attack in February by bringing its electronic prescription services back online. The first step towards a full restoration of systems will be welcome news to the US healthcare system after thousands of hospitals and pharmacies reported severe disruptions following the attack in late February.
A criminal claiming to be an ALPHV/BlackCat affiliate - the gang responsible for the widely disruptive Change Healthcare ransomware infection last month - may have ties to Chinese government-backed cybercrime syndicates. "Some of our HUMINT sources with direct contact to Notchy says it's high probability that Notchy is associated with China Nation-State groups," Menlo's threat intel team said in a report Wednesday.
In this Help Net Security video, Chris Bowen, CISO at ClearDATA, emphasizes the importance of digital health companies being more transparent with their users. As more and more Americans flock to direct-to-consumer digital health apps and resources, most people don't know that the sensitive health data they share with these companies could be passed on to third parties or sold to data brokers without a single consent form.
The US government has stepped in to help hospitals and other healthcare providers affected by the Change Healthcare ransomware infection, offering more relaxed Medicare rules and urging advanced funding to providers. Change, a UnitedHealth Group-owned IT services firm, provides software to more than 70,000 American pharmacies and healthcare organizations so they can electronically process insurance claims and fill prescription orders.
ALPHV/BlackCat, the gang behind the Change Healthcare cyberattack, has received more than $22 million in Bitcoin in what might be a ransomware payment. Dmitry Smilyanets, an intelligence analyst at infosec outfit Recorded Future, spotted a Bitcoin wallet believed to be linked to ALPHV received 350 Bitcoins, right now worth at least $22 million, in a single transaction on March 1.
Ransomware attacks on healthcare over the last few months have been relentless, with numerous ransomware operations targeting hospitals and medical services, causing disruption to patient care and access to prescription drugs in the USA. The most impactful attack of 2024 so far is the attack on UnitedHealth Group's subsidiary Change Healthcare, which has had significant consequences for the US healthcare system. To make matters worse, the BlackCat ransomware operation, aka ALPHV, claims to have stolen 6TB of data from Change Healthcare during the attack, containing the personal information of millions of people.
The ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the cyberattack that targeted Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, causing disruption to the Change Healthcare platform and affecting pharmacy transactions across the US. ALPHV/BlackCat is back. 3000+ source code files for Change Healthcare solutions.
The ALPHV/BlackCat cybercrime gang has taken credit - if that's the word - for a ransomware infection at Change Healthcare that has disrupted thousands of pharmacies and hospitals across the US, and also claimed that the amount of sensitive data stolen and affected health-care organizations is much larger than the victims initially disclosed. UnitedHealth owns the healthcare IT provider, and more than 70,000 pharmacies across the USA use its software to process insurance claims and fill prescriptions.
The BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware gang has officially claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, which led to an ongoing outage affecting the Change Healthcare platform. Change Healthcare is the largest payment exchange platform used by more than 70,000 pharmacies across the United States.
The U.S. government is warning about the resurgence of BlackCat (aka ALPHV) ransomware attacks targeting the healthcare sector as recently as this month. "Since mid-December 2023, of the nearly 70...