Change Healthcare cyberattack: US health tech giant's website taken offline

Cyberattack knocks Change Healthcare services offline. Ripples throughout healthcare industry. Unauthorized third party caused the issues. Optum is triaging the issue.

Change Healthcare has recently been the victim of a cyberattack that has caused significant disruptions to its services and has sent shockwaves throughout the healthcare industry. The company issued a brief statement on its status update website, acknowledging that some of its applications are currently unavailable and that it is working to address the problem.

The company's merger with Optum two years ago, in a deal valued at $7.8 billion, has only added to the complexity and potential impact of this latest cyber incident. Change Healthcare later confirmed that the disruption was caused by an unauthorized third party, indicating that the company is dealing with a serious cybersecurity issue.

In response to the threat, Change Healthcare took immediate action to disconnect its systems in order to prevent further impact and protect its partners and patients. However, the company expects the problem to persist for at least the entire day, with most of its login pages still offline and inaccessible at the time of the announcement.

While the company has not confirmed the nature of the cyberattack, it is widely speculated that this type of disruption, which results in parts of the network being unavailable or forced offline, is typically associated with a ransomware attack. Until Change Healthcare provides further updates or a hacking collective claims responsibility, the specifics of the attack and whether any data was compromised remain unknown.

The repercussions of this cyber incident extend beyond Change Healthcare, as local pharmacies, including Scheurer Health, have reported outages due to the attack. According to reports, the nationwide outage from the largest prescription processor in North America has caused significant disruptions to the processing of prescriptions through patient insurance, affecting healthcare providers and patients alike.

Change Healthcare, as a key player in the healthcare industry, processes an estimated 15 billion healthcare transactions annually, solidifying its position as one of the largest health tech firms in the country. The impact of this cyberattack on the company's operations and the broader healthcare industry remains to be seen, but it is clear that this incident has far-reaching implications that will require careful and strategic response from all parties involved.