UnitedHealth has possibly fallen under the trap of potential hackers, risking $22 million worth of sensitive records.

A group of newly formed hackers claims to have access to a massive stack of stolen data from the UnitedHealth Group, the most significant health insurer. However, there is not much evidence available to confirm the news. According to the claim, the hacker group called “Blackcat” walloped UnitedHealth and stole billions of dollars of health insurance payments all over the country in February. Blackcat initially released a statement on its website saying that they possessed 8 terabytes of stolen records encompassing medical insurance and health data, only to remove the statement from its their website later on. Shortly after the shocking incident, “Ransomhub”, a new group emerged and informed Reuters that some disgruntled Blackcat affiliate had given them the data in exchange for a ransomware payment of $22million in bitcoin. Although Ransomhub refused to give any additional information on this matter, they did not agree to reveal the identity of the affiliate.

On the other hand, UnitedHealth notified that it was aware of the hacker’s claims and was investigating the matter by working with authorities. The FBI, however, delayed the investigation process by not responding promptly.

UnitedHealth only disclosed limited information about the mishap, deciding not to make it public news if they had to pay a certain amount to the cybercriminals. However, some hacker forum postings, backed by forensic blockchain evidence, said that the Blackcat hacker group had gained $ 22 million of ransomware payment from either a group of hackers or an affiliate originally paid by UnitedHealth to regain access to the stolen data.

The master criminal “Blackcat” claimed that they were stopped by law enforcement and thereby vanished completely. Now, Ransomhub is also saying that they have UnitedHeath’s ‘stolen data’ and intend to resell it, which they received from the Blackcat affiliate after having made the payments.

With so much confusion over the matter and a lack of well-informed research, the experts are advising UnitedHeath to consider the claim with utmost caution. As Ransomhub declined to answer any additional questions, the true extent of the claim remains uncertain.

Threat analyst Brett Callow of the famous cybersecurity company Emsisoft stated that the claim made by Ransomhub could be genuine. However, due to the lack of evidence, it’s always better to take measured steps while handling the situation, for the latest claims could be another scam. He said that his suspicion was based on a “very low confidence guess.”

Another expert named Darren Williams who is the Chief Executive of the cybersecurity company Blackfog strongly believed that Ransomhub’s claims were a bluff to hide the whole fiasco. He further stated that it is very common for hacker gangs to sometimes lie about whatever resources they have in possession in order to boost their credibility and prove their eminence. This potential for further harm should be a cause for alarm.