April 30, 2024

After Massive Change Healthcare Cyber Attack, Warren, Cassidy, Blumenthal Urge Cybersecurity Agency to Crack Down on Crypto-Facilitated Ransomware Attacks  Millions of Patients, Healthcare Providers Affected by Payment Disruptions

“Ransomware payments are almost exclusively made using cryptocurrency, typically Bitcoin… this is because cryptocurrency enables cybercriminal groups to ‘extort huge sums of money from victims across diverse sectors with incredible speed.’”

“The people hurt by these ransomware attacks have a right to know what the federal government is doing to protect them.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. – Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) urging an assessment of the cybersecurity landscape leading up to, and after, the Change Healthcare cyberattack.  

Earlier this year, Russian-linked cybercriminal group ALPHV Black Cat conducted a ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, the payment platform for UnitedHealth Group’s Optum. This attack, in which the cybercriminal group shut down Change platforms until it received a $22 million Bitcoin ransom payment, is ongoing, and is causing massive disruptions to the nation’s healthcare system. Seven weeks after the attack, a second cybercriminal group, RansomHub, took control of the stolen data, and is upping the ante by leaking bits of sensitive patient data and threatening to sell it to the highest bidder. 

After the ransomware attacks, Change disconnected more than 100 of its technology platforms, leading to pharmacies experiencing significant problems filling prescriptions, doctors forced to wait on authorization for procedures, medical centers unable to pay their employees, and tens of millions of dollars of delayed insurance payments to providers. The shutdown remains unresolved, has affected millions of patients and providers, and will have lasting effects on our healthcare system. 

This attack is part of a growing trend of cryptocurrency-facilitated ransomware cyberattacks. Cryptocurrency is the preferred method of payment in these attacks because it enables cybercriminal groups to “extort huge sums of money from victims across diverse sectors with incredible speed,” and because cryptocurrency payments are irreversible. Cryptocurrency’s decentralized and anonymized nature “contribute[s] to the challenges law enforcement faces when seeking to arrest criminal actors, particularly foreign-based actors.”

In 2022, ransomware attacks affected more than 2,400 local government, schools, and healthcare providers. In 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services reported over 460 ransomware attacks on the U.S. health care public health sector, extorting at least $1.1 billion in cryptocurrency payments. When ransomware payments are made using cryptocurrency, these funds are at high risk of being laundered through the crypto ecosystem – including via centralized crypto exchanges and crypto mixers, the “preferred methods for laundering ransomware payments”  – complicating law enforcement’s ability to recover the ransom.

“The latest attacks on Change Healthcare underscore the urgent need for more oversight and investigation into the frequency, scope, and root causes of these attacks, specifically with regards to cryptocurrency’s role,” wrote the lawmakers. 

The lawmakers are giving CISA until May 13, 2024 to provide answers on the frequency, scope, and root cause of the ransomware attacks they track, including answers specifically about their role in tracking the Change Healthcare attack. 

Senator Warren is an outspoken advocate for regulation and oversight of crypto to rein in unchecked illegal activity, protect consumers, and the safety and stability of the financial system:

  • In March 2024, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Elizabeth Warren questioned the Commanders of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and UN Command on the national security risks posed by North Korea’s crypto-funded weapons programs and crypto’s use in ‘pig butchering’ scams — a type of scam in which fraudsters target individuals, gain their trust, and then manipulate them into phony investments through cryptocurrency before disappearing with the funds.

  • In February 2024, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, highlighted the dangers of cryptocurrency to U.S. national security during her exchange with Admiral Samuel Paparo, Nominee to be the Commander of Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM). 

  • In December 2023, Senator Warren announced an expanded coalition of Senate support for the bipartisan Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act. Senators Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), all members of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Senators John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) joined the bill as cosponsors. 

  • In December 2023, at a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator Warren questioned Big Bank CEOs, who agreed on the need to apply anti-money laundering rules to crypto companies to protect national security. 

  • In October 2023, Senators Warren and Marshall and Representative Sean Casten (D-Ill.) led 102 lawmakers in a bipartisan letter to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Brian Nelson, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Department of the Treasury raising grave concerns about reports that in the months leading up to their brutal October 7th terrorist attack on Israel, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad raised millions of dollars via crypto, evading U.S. sanctions to fund their operations.

  • In October 2023, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Warren spoke about the need to crack down threats posed by crypto, noting that half of North Korea’s missile program is paid for through crypto crime.

  • In September 2023, Senators Warren, Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced an expanded coalition of Senate support for their bipartisan Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, announcing 11 new cosponsors of their legislation – Senators Peters, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Smith, King, Shaheen, Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Blumenthal, Bennet, Cortez Masto, Fetterman, and Whitehouse.

  • In July 2023, Senator Warren, along with Senators Marshall, Manchin, and Graham reintroduced the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, legislation that would mitigate the risks that digital assets pose to our national security by closing loopholes and bringing the digital asset ecosystem into greater compliance with the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks governing the greater financial system.

  • In July 2023, at a hearing, Senator Warren warned about the national security risks of rogue states using crypto to evade sanctions and fund their weapons programs, spying, and cyberattacks – calling out North Korea for stealing over $3 billion in crypto over the past 5 years, and using proceeds to fund its illegal nuclear weapons program,

  • In May 2023, a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator Warren called out crypto’s role in fueling the fentanyl crisis and announced she will reintroduce her bipartisan Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, a bill that would close loopholes in anti-money laundering rules, cutting off drug suppliers and cartels from using crypto to facilitate their illegal business. 

  • In May 2023, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Warren questioned senior intelligence officials about crypto’s threats to national security as the method of choice for countries to evade sanctions and fund weapons programs, support spying, and promote cyber attacks.

  • In February 2023, at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Senator Warren raised concerns that key parts of the crypto industry are not subject to the same money laundering laws that cover other financial organizations, allowing financial criminals to use crypto to launder billions. 

  • On December 14, 2022, Senators Warren and Marshall introduced the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2022, bipartisan legislation that would mitigate the risks that crypto and other digital assets pose to the United States’s national security by closing loopholes in the existing anti-money laundering and countering of the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) framework and bring the digital asset ecosystem into greater compliance with the rules that govern the rest of the financial system.

  • In September 2022, Senator Warren sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen calling on the Treasury Department and the Financial Stability Oversight Council to build a strong regulatory framework for the crypto market.

  • In March 2022, Senators Warren, Reed, Warner, and Tester introduced the Digital Asset Sanctions Compliance Enhancement Act to ensure that Vladimir Putin and Russian elites don't use digital assets to undermine the international community’s economic sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

  • In March 2022, at a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator Warren highlighted the various crypto tools that could make it easier for sanctioned individuals to hide their wealth and lessen the impact of Russian sanctions.

  • In March 2022, at a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator Warren warned that crypto may allow Russia to dodge sanctions and urged stronger regulation of the crypto market to ensure that countries, drug traffickers, cyber criminals, and tax cheats can’t evade economic pain.

  • In March 2022, Senators Warren, Warner, Reed, and Brown sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, asking about the Treasury Department’s plans to enforce sanctions-compliance guidance for the crypto industry to ensure that economic sanctions remain an effective tool for achieving foreign policy goals.

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