Hackers Get Into HealthCare.gov Site – Is Anyone Surprised?

Hackers Get Into HealthCare.gov Site – Is Anyone Surprised?

If I had a dollar for every time something went wrong with the Obamacare implementation or with HealthCare.gov, I would be a very, very, VERY rich woman.

So, what’s the latest thing to go wrong with the problem-riddled Obamacare website? Oh, just a little bit of hacking, that’s all!

The initial intrusion took place July 8, but it was not detected until Monday of last week during a manual scan of system logs. HHS said the component that was breached did not have a firewall, or intrusion detection software, installed on it. Technicians manually scanning logs discovered the breach Aug. 25 and took action.

Doesn’t that make everyone just feel GREAT? The hacking took place on July 8th, but they didn’t discover it until August 25th. And it was only discovered because techs happened to be manually scanning logs. And what do you mean, this part of the website didn’t have a firewall??? If a health insurance company experienced a hacking, do you think the “we didn’t have a firewall on that server” excuse would go over well?

But don’t worry, because they PROMISE no one’s personal information was compromised!

Investigators found no evidence that consumers’ personal data was taken in the breach, federal officials said. The hacker appears only to have accessed a server used to test code for HealthCare.gov. The Department of Health and Human Services discovered the attack last week.

Rather, investigators found that in July, the intruder did just one thing: install malware on a HealthCare.gov server so it could be used in future cyberattacks against other websites, federal officials said. Hackers often take over troves of computers and servers to direct mischief traffic at websites. The rush of traffic, known as a denial of service attack, overwhelms the site and knocks it offline.

Oh, so it was just malware designed to attack other websites. I feel better now, don’t you?

Chairman Darrell Issa of the House Oversight Committee was plenty mad about this breach. He is bringing in HHS official Marilyn Tavenner, who is the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to testify before the committee to talk about this hacking breach – AND that Tavenner seems to have conveniently lost a whole lot of emails, Lois Lerner-style.

HHS official Marilyn Tavenner
HHS official Marilyn Tavenner

“Considering this Administration launched healthcare.gov over the objections of CMS, it’s unsurprising that the website has suffered a ‘malicious attack,’” said Chairman Issa. “For nearly a year, the Administration has dismissed concerns about the security of healthcare.gov, even as it obstructed Congressional oversight of the issue. The Committee will continue to push for answers from the Administration and Administrator Tavenner must testify on the subject of transparency, accountability, and information security alongside the Government Accountability Office at our September 18th hearing. Additionally, just last month, the Administration admitted that Tavenner, who was the senior official responsible for the disastrous rollout, experienced a similar email ‘loss’ as IRS official Lois Lerner.”

This should be good. We’ll see if Tavenner decides to take the Fifth, as well. But she probably will not, and instead just profess her own personal ignorance and technological ineptitude to get out of this particular jam. I love how those tasked with putting together and running HealthCare.gov have absolutely no idea how web programming or coding works, don’t you? You’d think they could at least hire experts, but that’s not how government works. Government takes the lowest bidder or the most favorite crony to get these things done.

This website has been a disaster from day one, and if anyone is surprised that a hacking attempt actually got through, then you haven’t been paying attention. And do you really truly believe HHS when they say that no one’s personal information was compromised? I don’t. If they don’t have a firewall around one part of the system – even if it was used for “training purposes,” how many other parts don’t have firewalls? And even then, firewalls can be breached. Malware programs can be very, very nasty. Are they putting techs on all the unprotected servers to manually check each one to make sure there are no more malware programs lying in wait?

And do you believe that Tavenner, who Issa pegs as the “senior official responsible” for the rollout of HealthCare.gov, just happened to have destroyed emails from that particular period of time, and only thought to tell Congress when they were subpoenaed – and even then, stonewall for months until they ‘fessed up?

Hmm. Seems like a whole lot of people lose their data and emails when something doesn’t go according to plan these days. How convenient.

Open enrollment for Obamacare plans starts on November 15th – just a couple of months from now. I wonder what kind of surprises are going to be waiting for everyone on that day when they try to log in?

Written by

2 Comments
  • Nina says:

    Problem is… I don’t think they know for certain WHEN the system was hacked, or how many times it has been hacked.

    My advice would be for everyone and I mean everyone to stay away far far away from the Obamacare website. It would be the only way to ensure personal information isn’t compromised by their incompetence

  • “If I had a dollar for every time something went wrong with the Obamacare implementation or with HealthCare.gov, I would be a very, very, VERY rich woman.”

    Until April 15. Then the sticky-fingered IRS (who cannot seem to hang onto Lois Lerner’s emails but have never dropped a dollar bill in their lives) would pay you a little visit.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe
Become a Victory Girl!

Are you interested in writing for Victory Girls? If you’d like to blog about politics and current events from a conservative POV, send us a writing sample here.
Ava Gardner
gisonboat
rovin_readhead