Change Healthcare — a technology company based in Tennessee that is part of the health services provider Optum, Inc. and owned by the massive conglomerate UnitedHealth Group — first reported experiencing company-wide connectivity problems on Wednesday morning. By Thursday, both the subsidiary and UnitedHealth acknowledged that a cybersecurity issue had caused a network outage that was expected to last 24 hours or more.
“Change Healthcare is experiencing a cyber security issue and our experts are working to address the matter,” a spokesperson for UnitedHealth said in a statement to CBS News on Thursday. “Once we became aware of the outside threat, in the interest of protecting our partners and patients, we took immediate action to disconnect our systems to prevent further impact.”
“At this time, we believe the issue is specific to Change Healthcare and all other systems across UnitedHealth Group are operational,” the spokesperson added. “The disruption is expected to last at least through the day.”
The company said it would share additional updates as more information becomes available.
The filing did not identify the alleged country involved. FOX Business has reached out to the White House for comment.
On its website Friday morning, Change Healthcare said it is “experiencing a cyber security issue, and our experts are working to address the matter.”
“Once we became aware of the outside threat, in the interest of protecting our partners and patients, we took immediate action to disconnect our systems to prevent further impact,” the company continued. “At this time, we believe the issue is specific to Change Healthcare and all other systems across UnitedHealth Group are operational.”
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