Security News

The Biden administration and US lawmakers are turning up the pressure on UnitedHealth group to ease medical providers' pain after the ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, by expediting payments to hospitals, physicians and pharmacists - among other tactics. In a letter addressed to "Health care leaders" on Sunday, the heads of both the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Labor called on UnitedHealth Group to "Take responsibility to ensure no provider is compromised by their cash flow challenges" following the cyber attack, and expedite funds to all impacted providers.

Optum's Change Healthcare has started to bring systems back online after suffering a crippling BlackCat ransomware attack last month that led to widespread disruption to the US healthcare system. United Health Group is the largest American health insurance company, and its subsidiary, Optum Solutions, operates the Change Healthcare platform.

A cyberattack on UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Optum that led to an ongoing outage impacting the Change Healthcare payment exchange platform was linked to the BlackCat ransomware group by sources familiar with the investigation. One of those involved in these calls told BleepingComputer that the attack was linked to the BlackCat ransomware gang by forensic experts involved in the incident response.

US healthcare giant UnitedHealth Group announced that its subsidiary Optum suffered a cyberattack by "Nation-state" hackers on the Change Healthcare platform, forcing the company to shut down IT systems and various services.Its subsidiary, Optum Solutions, operates the Change Healthcare platform, which is the largest payment exchange platform between doctors, pharmacies, healthcare providers, and patients in the US healthcare system.