Here is the CHC website: https://www.changehealthcare.com/ Links to an external site.

Here is the Optum website: https://www.optum.com/en/ Links to an external site.

Here is the UHC website: https://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/ Links to an external site.

Here are key facts about CHC: https://cs-gw-newsroom.staging.changehealthcare.com/press-releases/change-healthcare-inc--reports-first-quarter-fiscal-2023-financi Links to an external site.

Here are two articles that goes into the ransomware attack: https://apnews.com/article/change-cyberattack-hospitals-pharmacy-alphv-unitedhealthcare-521347eb9e8490dad695a7824ed11c41 Links to an external site.

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2024-03-04/explainer-what-to-know-about-the-change-healthcare-cyberattack Links to an external site.

Here is what ransomware is and how it affects the health care industry: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/security/guidance/cybersecurity/ransomware-fact-sheet/index.html Links to an external site.

Scenario:

Change Healthcare is a subsidiary of Optum, which is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group (UHG). CHC's Executive Vice President, Abigail Adams, was alerted early morning on February 21, 2024, that her Information Technology (IT) division had a ransomware attack. Prior to this ransomware attack, Adams had a $5 million budget item for public relations pieces on IT and Information Management (IM) on behalf of CHC. Now, Adams will have to spend her entire budget item, $5m, on developing a series of deliverables involving getting the message out on what CHC is doing to remedy the issues and how they will prevent it in the future.

Ms. Adams has assigned you to be the Project Manager to handle all media relations and be the conduit for escalating information to Senior Managers in CHC. Using the information that you have already learnt; how will Adams get the information out to Senior Leaders and to the media (using the Waterfall 5 steps)? How will you, the PM, fix this problem?

Ms. Adams also expects that daily ransomware attacks will continue to increase. She would like you to find a cybersecurity company to handle these issues going forward. And create a policy and procedure going forward. She estimates that this project will take around 6 months to do.

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First, as the PM, you have to ask yourself, "Are all these deliverables achievable?" and "Is the timeline appropriate?". PMs are responsible for being the SME on their project. What additional information will you need to create an Executive Summary for this project? Use Google. Use the websites. Find articles on the ransomware attack. Talk to your professors. Talk to friends. Be creative! Use the information above and the information on the internet to build an Executive Summary / Overview including this information. For full points, make sure you cite the articles and websites above and at least 2 other sources.

(Reminder that to receive all points for this submission, you must answer the discussion question and respond to at least 2 of your colleagues' discussions with constructive, probative values)