Pharmacy Outages Triggered by ‘Blackcat’ Ransomware

Hackers from the ‘Blackcat’ ransomeware gang are reportedly behind the February 21st pharmacy outage last month. The pharmacy outage halted prescription deliveries for nearly one week after hackers reportedly gained access to United Health owned Change Healthcare information technology systems which also led to massive disruptions at pharmacies across the country, including CVS, Walgreens, Publix, and GoodRX.

Change Healthcare confirmed the ‘Blackcat’ ransomeware group was behind the attack and is actively working to ‘understand the impact to its members, patients and customers.’ The company is also working with law enforcement and cybersecurity companies to address the cyber attack.

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), ‘Blackcat’ generally steals victim’s data, encrypt’s it and then block’s the victims from accessing it. ‘Blackcat’ then charges a ransom in exchange for releasing data instead of publishing the dat. The DOJ stated that ‘Blackcat’ has triggered hundreds of millions of dollars worth of losses worldwide.

It will likely take weeks to determine exactly what healthcare information was stolen or how it could be used to harm a patient. Updates will be provided as more information becomes available.