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Insurance superintendent issues warning after cyber attack
Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, testifies at a Senate Finance Committee hearing examining cyber attacks on health care, on Wednesday.
The New Mexico Office of the Superintendent of Insurance on Thursday urged New Mexicans to take certain actions to protect their personal information in the wake of a massive hack against a health care company.
The warning came as more information was revealed about a hack against Change Healthcare, a company that handles about 50% of medical claims nationwide. The company was cyberattacked in February, which compromised consumers’ personal information.
UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty told U.S. senators in a hearing on Wednesday that the hack happened because Change Healthcare’s server lacked multifactor authentication, which would have added a second layer of security to password-protected accounts. UnitedHealth owns Change Healthcare.
Witty said hackers gained access to Change Healthcare in February and unleashed a ransomware attack that encrypted and froze large parts of the company’s system. The attack disrupted payment and claims processing around the country.
In the wake of Witty’s testimony, New Mexico’s insurance oversight office issued the following recommendations:
- Check financial accounts for suspicious activity
- Monitor financial accounts and credit reports
- Signup for free credit monitoring
- Request a fraud alert from a credit bureau
- Don’t use the same password on all accounts
- Freeze your credit
