The $22M Ransom: How a Single Unprotected Login Crippled the U.S. Healthcare System.
Published on September 15, 2025 by MoreMeets Team
In February 2024, the American healthcare system was brought to its knees. A ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, a company that processes over 15 billion healthcare transactions a year, caused a catastrophic outage. Doctors couldn't verify insurance and pharmacies couldn't process prescriptions. The CEO of UnitedHealth Group later testified before Congress that the initial point of entry for the hackers was a single, stolen credential for a remote access portal that lacked Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
This incident is a brutal lesson for every CISO and business leader: your organization's security is no longer defined by your own walls. It is defined by the weakest link in your entire digital supply chain—a vulnerability that also led to the massive Domino's India data breach.
Failure Point 1: Onboarding Without Verification
A critical vendor, in this case Change Healthcare, was given remote access to sensitive systems without a formal, evidence-based security check. The company trusted the vendor's reputation without verifying their actual security controls.
Our Vendor Security Assessment checklist mandates a pre-onboarding security questionnaire. A mandatory, non-negotiable question like "Is Multi-Factor Authentication enforced on ALL remote access portals?" would have immediately raised a red flag, forcing the vendor to fix the critical vulnerability before being granted access to the network.
Failure Point 2: Lack of Contractual Obligation
The vendor's contract likely had vague security language ("vendor will maintain reasonable security measures"), without specific, legally binding requirements to maintain explicit controls like MFA on all external-facing systems.
Our contract SOPs include a "Security Clause Checklist" that must be attached as a mandatory addendum to all vendor contracts. This turns best practices into binding legal requirements. A breach resulting from a failure to meet this clause would constitute a clear breach of contract, providing powerful legal recourse.
Conclusion: Your Next Breach Will Be a Vendor
Stop trusting and start verifying. Implement a mandatory, checklist-driven vendor security assessment process for every new and existing vendor. The tools in our Enterprise Risk & Cybersecurity Pack provide the framework to build this critical defense. In today's interconnected world, assuming your vendors are secure is not a viable strategy—it's negligence.
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