November 4, 2024
Research Fellow:
- Bobby Boughton, MacroPraxis Research Institute Fellow
Link To Research Paper
Breach Analysis Visual:
Research Summary
The Turn Back Time (TBT) Breach Analysis of the Change Healthcare ransomware attack provides an in-depth examination of how the BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware group infiltrated and crippled a critical healthcare infrastructure, leading to a $2.87 billion financial impact. The analysis maps the attack to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, tracing each stage from reconnaissance to impact. The research identifies missed opportunities for early detection and explores how deception technology—including fake credentials, honeytokens, and decoy systems—could have alerted security teams much earlier, potentially stopping the attack before it reached the impact stage. Key findings indicate that detection at Stage 4 (Execution) instead of Stage 14 (Impact) could have significantly reduced financial losses and prevented widespread healthcare service disruptions.
This report highlights the critical need for proactive cybersecurity measures, particularly deception-based defenses, which can detect, mislead, and neutralize attackers before they escalate access. By integrating deception technology into a layered security strategy, organizations like Change Healthcare could have detected the attack nine days earlier, disrupting the adversary’s ability to establish control and exfiltrate data. While no security solution guarantees complete breach prevention, deception tools serve as an early-warning system, providing defenders the chance to intervene before attackers can inflict massive financial and operational damage.