Change Healthcare Ransomware Attack Spotlights Single Point of Failure with Third-Party Vendor

**Executive summary:** Change Healthcare, the largest U.S. medical claims processor and a UnitedHealth subsidiary, experienced a significant ransomware attack attributed to BlackCat/ALPHV that forced disconnection of over 100 systems, halted claims processing nationwide, inflicted multi-million-dollar daily revenue losses on hospitals, and reportedly involved a ~USD 22 million ransom payment; a secondary extortion claim by RansomHub alleges possession of 4 TB of stolen data, highlighting severe supply-chain concentration risks across healthcare and prompting vendor-security and third-party risk mitigation recommendations.