US Offers $10 Million Bounty For Info on 'Blackcat' Hackers Who Hit UnitedHealth (reuters.com) 15
The U.S. State Department has offered up to $10 million for information on the "Blackcat" ransomware gang who hit the UnitedHealth Group's tech unit and snarled insurance payments across America. From a report: "The ALPHV Blackcat ransomware-as-a-service group compromised computer networks of critical infrastructure sectors in the United States and worldwide," the department said in a statement announcing the reward offer.
UnitedHealth said last week it was beginning to clear a medical claims backlog of more than $14 billion as it brought its services back online following the cyberattack, which caused wide-ranging disruption starting in late February. UnitedHealth's tech unit, Change Healthcare, plays a critical role in processing payments from insurance companies to practitioners, and the outage caused by the cyberattack has in some cases left patients and doctors out of pocket. The toll on the community health centers that serve more than 30 million poor and uninsured patients has been especially harsh.
UnitedHealth said last week it was beginning to clear a medical claims backlog of more than $14 billion as it brought its services back online following the cyberattack, which caused wide-ranging disruption starting in late February. UnitedHealth's tech unit, Change Healthcare, plays a critical role in processing payments from insurance companies to practitioners, and the outage caused by the cyberattack has in some cases left patients and doctors out of pocket. The toll on the community health centers that serve more than 30 million poor and uninsured patients has been especially harsh.
Re: (Score:2)
It impacted millions getting care across the country. Of course the DOJ is going to look to find those responsible. That's not surprising.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket? (Score:2)
Why did this happen? Less redundancy, and what did UHC lose beside their reputation? But so what? They'll still get paid it's not like we can go somewhere else!
UHG funded illegal activity (Score:2)
The government should be going after UHG for paying the ransom instead of offering a reward to more slimeballs.
Also, hopefully this reward is not tax-payer funded...
Old news (Score:4, Informative)
Published 15 February https://www.bleepingcomputer.c... [bleepingcomputer.com]
"The U.S. Department of State is offering a reward of up to $10,000,000 for information leading to the identification or location of any individual(s) who hold a key leadership position in the Transnational Organized Crime group behind the ALPHV/Blackcat ransomware variant," the State Department said.
"In addition, a reward offer of up to $5,000,000 is offered for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction in any country of any individual conspiring to participate in or attempting to participate in ALPHV/Blackcat ransomware activities."
Re: (Score:2)
It takes time to process articles for posting on /.
Well, time ... and a few pounds of REALLY GOOD weed.
Renault Automobiles market cap : $14B (Score:2)
UnitedHealth medical claims : $14B
Just to put this claim into perspective.
Doctors Used to Keep Records Local (Score:2)
USA has a long history of not paying its bounties (Score:2)
Just remember, people. The chance of actually getting paid is very small even if you have provenly helped find the target. Sometimes it takes years to get partially paid but often it just never happens.
Time to update LinkedIn (Score:1)
We need WhiteHat hackers to go after them (Score:2)
FUCK that (Score:1)
Re: FUCK that (Score:2)