Blackcat ransomware hacker gangs penetrated computer networks of important
sectors in the United States and around the world, including social networking
sites.
The US State Department on Wednesday announced a reward of up to $10 million
for information regarding the ransomware group known as "Blackcat,"
which hacked into UnitedHealth Group's IT business and disrupted insurance
payments across the country, according to Reuters.
"The BlackCat ransomware hacker group (also known as ALV) infiltrated the
computer networks of critical infrastructure sectors in the United States and
around the world," the department stated in the reward announcement.
.
UnitedHealth announced
last week that it had begun satisfying accumulated medical claims totaling more
than $14 billion after resuming operations following the cyber incident that
caused widespread disruption in late February.
UnitedHealthcare's IT business is critical in processing payments from
insurance companies to medical providers, and the cyber assault caused an
outage in some circumstances, resulting in patients and doctors paying for
medical services.
The attack had a serious impact on community health clinics, which serve over
30 million low-income and uninsured people.
The hackers claimed
earlier this month that the corporation had paid a $22 million ransom in an
attempt to recover its systems, but they did not say whether the company's
services had been restored after receiving the money.
Shortly after the hack, the group posted a phony statement on its website
saying that the authorities had been able to get access to its operations, in
an attempt to give the appearance that its operations had ceased.
Source: Reuters
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