One-third of U.S. population could have been affected by Unitedhealth Group cyber attack

The exact number of people whose healthcare information may have been compromised by a recent cyber-attack is unknown, but it could be as high as one-third of the U.S. population. 

That’s the estimate the CEO of United-health Group gave to a U.S. House subcommittee during a hearing this week. 

There’s no estimate as to how many Missourians are affected, but U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt says his office stands ready to assist:  “They can also reach out to the Missouri Attorney General’s office.  I know from experience, having been in that office, you handle a lot of these kinds of consumer complaints and there’s often litigation, multi state litigation, to protect consumers against data breaches like this.” 

The hackers used stolen credentials to access a server that was not set up with multi-factor authentication. 

The company paid a 22-million-dollar ransom in order to regain access. 

The attack resulted in a nationwide disruption of claims processing and payments.