UnitedHealth Group has released further details about the devastating Change Healthcare attack that caused widespread damage throughout the US, taking large chunks of revenue from some care providers and in some cases keeping patients from needed medication. The group has confirmed that it made a ransom payment to restore service.
Caesars Entertainment quietly disclosed its own recent cyber attack in a SEC filing. Unlike MGM, Caesars appears to have skated through their own incident by making a $15 million ransom payment to the hackers.
Declining a ransom payment demand can leave the business at a standstill. Companies achieve better outcomes when they have a strategy and pre-defined path to act instantly and decisively to restore systems, resume operations, and defend against additional actions.