Just when you thought the HealthCare.gov nightmare was over, a hacker throws yet another wrench in the disastrous Obamacare website.
More specifically, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that a hacker broke into a server used to test coding for the website and planted a bug, the Wall Street Journal reports. This security breach occurred in July, an inexcusable six weeks before it was discovered on August 25.
Federal officials claim that there is not yet evidence that personal information of enrollees — like Social Security numbers and financial information — was taken or viewed.
“Our review indicates that the server did not contain consumer personal information; data was not transmitted outside the agency, and the website was not specifically targeted,” HHS explained in a statement. “We have taken measures to further strengthen security.”
The Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency are all contributing in the ongoing investigation of the breach.
S.Y. Lee, spokesman for the Deparment of Homeland Security, assured that “there is no indication that any data was compromised at this time.”
That certainly hasn’t stopped lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle from expressing their concern and outrage at such a security breach.
“Today’s news that HealthCare.gov was hacked should come as a surprise to no one,” asserted Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). “Despite numerous warnings from myself and other lawmakers that security breaches were possible, HealthCare.gov underwent virtually no independent security testing.”
“It’s yet another deeply disturbing failure of the president’s health law, and once again it is the American people who are bearing the brunt of the law’s failures,” Hatch added.
Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif) called the attack “unsurprising.”
“For nearly a year, the administration has dismissed concerns about the security of HealthCare.gov, even as it obstructed congressional oversight of the issue,” he expanded.
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who also chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, labeled security breach “deeply disturbing” and urged Congress “to reform our laws to better combat attacks from malicious actors and comprehensively address our serious cyber challenges to protect our nation, its people, its critical infrastructure, and its economy.”
What’s more, it’s not only members of Congress who worry over the insecurity of HealthCare.gov. Experts like computer forensic scientist Rebecca Mercuri, who herself has studied the security of the Obamacare website, sounded an alarm on the issue.
“There were security problems [with HealthCare.gov] from the get go,” Mercuri told Politico.
“This might be the first time we heard about it,” she added, “but I’d be surprised if this was the first time it happened.”
