UnitedHealth unplugs Change Healthcare to contain cyber attack

TLDR:

• UnitedHealth Group disconnected Change Healthcare’s information system to contain a cyberattack.
• The cyberattack was attributed to an unnamed “nation-state associated cyber security threat actor.”

The article discusses the cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, leading to the disconnection of its information systems. The attack was reportedly from a nation-state associated threat actor. The outage primarily affected pharmacies across the U.S., prompting other healthcare organizations to take precautions. UnitedHealth took immediate action to disconnect Change Healthcare’s systems to prevent further impact and to protect partners and patients. The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, and Department of Health and Human Services held a call with UnitedHealth executives to address the cyberattack. The Optum website confirmed that Optum, UnitedHealthcare, and UnitedHealth Group systems were not affected. Despite the disruption, Change Healthcare assured that the issue was specific to their systems and not across UnitedHealth Group. Independent and Department of Defense pharmacies were among those affected by the outage.