Close to 200 million impacted in UnitedHealth hack, US health dept reports

Last year's cyberattack at UnitedHealth Group's tech unit, Change Healthcare, impacted 192.7 million people, the US health department's website showed on Thursday.

The cyberattack at UnitedHealth Group's tech unit last year impacted 192.7 million people, the US health department's website showed on Thursday.

In January, the company had estimated the hack at Change Healthcare affected the personal information of 190 million people.

The cyberattack — the largest healthcare data breach in the United States to date — was disclosed in February last year. The unit was infiltrated by hackers who identified themselves as the "Blackcat" ransomware group, causing widespread disruptions in claims processing and impacting patients and providers across the country.

"The final total number of individuals impacted by the Change Healthcare cyberattack is approximately 192.7 million", a UnitedHealth spokesperson said, adding that the individual state numbers will vary in each state.

The number of impacted people was posted on a list of data breaches maintained by the US Department of Health and Human Services' office for civil rights.

Information made vulnerable in the UnitedHealth attack is believed to include health insurance member IDs, patient diagnoses, treatment information, social security numbers, and billing codes used by providers.

This would “aid in testing security defenses against common attack techniques in order to prevent any future breaches” Costis said.