Health care giant comes clean about recent hack and paid ransom

Change Healthcare, a major U.S. health care services provider, was recently compromised in a ransomware attack by the group ALPHV or BlackCat, leading to significant disruptions in the U.S. prescription market. The attack, facilitated by insufficient security measures including the absence of multifactor authentication, resulted in the theft of substantial personal health information and forced the company to rebuild its IT infrastructure from scratch. CEO Andrew Witty of UnitedHealth Group, the parent company, admitted to the security lapses and confirmed that a $22 million ransom was paid, which has led to criticism due to the ineffectiveness of such payments in securing data. The financial impact on UnitedHealth Group was substantial, with a reported $872 million cost due to the attack.