UnitedHealth data breach should be a wake-up call for the UK and NHS

The recent ransomware attack on U.S. health insurance provider UnitedHealth Group and tech subsidiary Change Healthcare is expected to affect up to one-third of the U.S. population. The attack, following UnitedHealth’s $1.5 billion acquisition of UK-based EMIS Health, raises concerns for the UK’s National Health Service patients whose data is managed by EMIS Health. UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty highlighted outdated systems without multi-factor authentication as the cause of the breach. Earlier this week, hacker Aleksanteri Kivimäki was jailed for infiltrating a healthcare company in Finland, indicating a growing trend of cyber-attacks on health data.