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Change Healthcare Finally Admits It Paid Ransomware Hackers—and Still Faces a Patient Data Leak

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Ransomware News

Hacking,Cybersecurity,Malware

The company belatedly conceded both that it had paid the cybercriminals extorting it and that patient data nonetheless ended up on the dark web.

More than two months after the start of a ransomware debacle whose impact ranks among the worst in the history of cybersecurity, the medical firm Change Healthcare finally confirmed what cybercriminals, security researchers, and Bitcoin's blockchain had already made all too clear: that it did indeed pay a ransom to the hackers who targeted the company in February. And yet, it still faces the risk of losing vast amounts of customers' sensitive medical data.

AlphV's digital paralysis of Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, snarled the insurance approval of prescriptions and medical procedures for hundreds of medical practices and hospitals across the country, making it by some measures the most widespread medical ransomware disruption ever. A survey of American Medical Association members, conducted between March 26 and April 3, found that four out of five clinicians had lost revenue as a result of the crisis.

 

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