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Two months afterhackers broke into Change Healthcare systemsstealing and then encrypting party data , it ’s still unclear how many Americans were impacted by the cyberattack .
Last month , Andrew Witty , the chief executive officer of Change Healthcare ’s parent companionship UnitedHealth Group , pronounce that the stolen file include the personal health informationof “ a substantial dimension of people in America . ”
On Wednesday , during a House hearing , when pushed to give a more definitive solvent , Witty testified that the breach impacted “ I think , perchance a third [ of Americans ] or somewhere of that level . ”
Witty said he was reluctant to give a more precise answer because the company is still inquire the severance and trying to figure out exactly how many mass were affected .
UnitedHealth ’s spokesperson Anthony Marusic did not immediately react to a postulation for comment on Witty ’s estimate .
During a auditory modality in the Senate sooner on Wednesday , Witty said that it will likely take “ several month , ” before the company can start notifying victims of the data breach .
In a written instruction filed by Witty ahead of the two hearings , the CEO wrote that “ so far , we have not seen evidence of exfiltration of materials such as doctors ’ chart or full medical histories among the information . ”
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According to Witty ’s testimony , the hacker “ used compromise certificate to remotely access a Change Healthcare Citrix portal , ” which was not protect by multi - factor authentication , a basic cybersecurity measure that append an redundant step to log into account and organization .
Had that portal had multi - factor certification enable , the breach may not have happened . Several Senators grill Witty on that failure , asking him whether UnitedHealth and Change Healthcare systems are now protected with multi - factor authentication .
During the Senate hearing , Witty say : “ We have an enforced insurance across the administration to have multi - factor authentication on all of our external organisation , which is in position . ”
