UnitedHealth data breach caused by lack of multifactor authentification


Hackers breached the computer system of a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary and released ransomware after stealing someone’s password, CEO Andrew Witty testified Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

The cybercriminals entered through a portal that didn’t have multifactor authentification (MFA) enabled. During an hourslong congressional hearing, Witty told lawmakers that the company has not yet determined how many patients and health care professionals were impacted by the cyberattack on Change Healthcare in February.

Read more…
Source: MSN News


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • Brazilian Ministry of Health recovers systems over a month after cyberattack

    January 18, 2022

    After a major cyberattack brought key systems of Brazil’s Ministry of Health (MoH) to a halt, the department has reported all its platforms are back online. According to a statement released by the MoH on Friday (14), most systems have been reestablished following a cyberattack in early December 2021, including ConecteSUS, which holds COVID-19 vaccination data. ...

  • Technology developed to track spread of coronavirus could be abused, privacy campaigner warns

    January 16, 2022

    A medical privacy campaigner says technology developed to track the spread of COVID-19 is a new form of surveillance that could be abused. Phil Booth, coordinator at MedConfidential, warned that increased monitoring of wastewater from sinks, drains and toilets, which can reveal infections and drug use, needs to be properly regulated. “The concerns will be raised more ...

  • Maryland officials confirm ransomware attack shut down Department of Health

    January 12, 2022

    Maryland officials confirmed on Wednesday that state’s Department of Health is dealing with a devastating ransomware attack, which has left hospitals struggling amid a surge of COVID-19 cases. In a statement released on Wednesday, Maryland Chief Information Security Officer Chip Stewart said the attack began on December 4 and crippled their systems. “We have paid no extortion ...

  • Data breach: Broward Health warns 1.3 million patients, staff of ‘medical identity theft’

    January 3, 2022

    This weekend, the Broward Health hospital system notified more than 1.3 million patients and staff members that their personal information was involved in a data breach that started on October 15. In a statement on Saturday, the Florida hospital system said that in addition to names, addresses and phone numbers, Social Security numbers, bank account information ...

  • Top 10 healthcare breaches in the U.S. exposed data of 19 million

    December 31, 2021

    The healthcare sector has been the target of hundreds of cyberattacks this year. A tally of public data breach reports so far shows that tens of millions of healthcare records have been exposed to unauthorized parties. Most of the largest data breaches result from ransomware attacks and the first ten of them account for more than ...

  • Phishing incident causes data breach at West Virginia hospitals

    December 22, 2021

    A hospital system in West Virginia has suffered a data breach resulting from a phishing attack, which gave hackers access to several email accounts. Monongalia Health System — which runs Monongalia County General Hospital Company and Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital Company — said that hackers had access to several email accounts from May 10 to August ...