Hackers likely stole health, personal data from large number of Americans WPXI [Video]

UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in the U.S., announced Monday that hackers stole health and personal data of potentially a “substantial proportion” of Americans from its systems in February, Reuters is reporting.

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The hack targeted UnitedHealth’s subsidiary, Change Healthcare, according to CNBC. Change Healthcare offers payment and revenue cycle management tools, and processes more than 15 billion transactions annually. That means that those who are not customers of UnitedHealth could still be affected by the attack.

The hack led to disruptions in payments to doctors, hospitals and pharmacies.

A statement from the company said the compromised data included files with protected health information or personally identifiable information “which could cover a substantial proportion of people in America.”

UnitedHealthcare paid a ransom to the hackers, it acknowledged, but the information was stolen anyway.

“A ransom was paid as part of the company’s commitment to do all it could to protect patient data from disclosure,” UnitedHealth Chief Executive Andrew Witty told CNBC …