On July 28, 2023, United Healthcare Services, Inc. filed a notice of data breach with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. UHS explains that, as a result of the incident, an unauthorized party was able to access sensitive information belonging to 398,319 individuals. Upon completing its investigation, UHS began sending out data breach notification letters to all individuals whose information was affected by the recent data security incident.

If you received a data breach notification from United Healthcare Services, Inc., it is essential you understand what is at risk and what you can do about it. As we’ve discussed in prior posts, companies have a legal obligation to protect the sensitive information in their possession. This includes protecting consumer data from known cyberthreats. A data breach lawyer can help you learn more about how to protect yourself from becoming a victim of fraud or identity theft as well as discuss your legal options following the United Healthcare Services data breach. For more information, please see our recent piece on the topic here.

What Caused the Data Breach Affecting United Healthcare Services?

The United Healthcare Services data breach was only recently announced, and more information is expected in the near future. Unfortunately, UHS’s filing with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights provides limited information on what led up to the breach. According to this source, UHS detected a Hacking/IT incident involving a network server. After an investigation, it was confirmed that the breach affected the personal information of 398,319 individuals.

The data breach reports posted on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights website do not provide a list of information that was compromised. However, typically, only the breaches that involve consumers’ protected health information must be reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights.

Those affected by the United Healthcare Services data breach will likely soon begin receiving letters describing what happened and what information was involved. Based on the information available at the time of this article’s publication, it was not clear whether the UHS data breach targeted UHS data or whether hackers obtained UHS data through a third-party breach.