Hackers Breach System of Healthcare.Gov Exposing Personal Data of 75,000 Users

A computer of a government website HealthCare.gov got hacked in the beginning of this month, which led to exposure of personal data of around 75,000 people.

As per the CMS (Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Services) the system that got hacked was actually the one that was a direct enrollment pathway. The system was specifically for the agents and brokers who were assisting the customers filling up the application forms for the coverage of Federally Facilitated Exchanges (FFE). The Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Services further added that the accounts of those agents and brokers that were hacked were immediately deactivated. The statement said that, "out of an abundance of caution -- the Direct Enrollment pathway for agents and brokers was disabled".

The government website HealthCare.gov requires users to fill up their personal information that includes addresses, name and user's social security number, so that they can sign up for the healthcare plans offered by the government website. The system of when got hacked it made the personal data of the users stored on that computer vulnerable for access. However, it is still not revealed by the CMS that which data were stolen by the hackers, and also it is not clear how the hackers compromised the system. As per the news of October 20, 2018, posted by fortune.com, the website of HealthCare.gov as well as the Marketplace call center are fully operational.

CMS has reported that the service of Direct Enrollment system has been shut down by the authorities in order to implement latest security measures to the website. However, the website has been planned to be running with its updated services within a week. The authorities of the website are also working to inform the affected users about the hack, and are also assisting them with safety measures such as credit protection and so on.

According to the administrator of Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Seema Verma, the system of HealthCare.gov is different from other consumer-facing healthcare websites, where anyone can sign up for the healthcare coverage. Seema further added that this incident of breach will not in any manner impact the open enrollment period that is coming up next from November 1, 2018.

The administrator further added that, "we are working to identify the individuals potentially impacted as quickly as possible so that we can notify them and provide resources such as credit protection".

» SPAMfighter News - 10/29/2018