Change Healthcare (2024)

The 2024 ransomware attack on UnitedHealth Group's Change Healthcare subsidiary disrupted prescription drug processing across the entire U.S. healthcare system for weeks, affecting 94% of all hospitals—a scale 60% greater than the Colonial Pipeline's regional impact. The $22 million ransom paid to the ALPHV/BlackCat group and the exposure of records for approximately 190 million Americans make it the largest healthcare breach ever, outpacing Colonial's medical data exfiltration by a factor of 180. ALPHV/BlackCat's double extortion tactics proved more sophisticated than DarkSide's, with data leaks amplifying the damage beyond operational shutdowns. This incident highlighted the fragility of centralized healthcare IT, as even a single subsidiary's compromise could paralyze critical infrastructure nationwide.