Overview

• The breach, attributed to the BlackCat ransomware group, initially reported 100 million affected individuals but has now grown to 190 million people.
• Compromised data includes Social Security numbers, medical records, insurance details, and other sensitive personal information.
• The attack caused widespread disruptions in the healthcare system, affecting pharmacies, doctors, and military health services, leading to significant patient hardships.
• UnitedHealth paid a $22 million ransom to recover data, but hackers failed to honor their agreement and later demanded additional payments.
• The breach has highlighted systemic cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the healthcare sector, including reliance on outdated systems and lax security measures like the absence of multi-factor authentication.