Healthcare.gov Warns Against Heartbleed Bug Risk
Healthcare.gov has not been affected by the Heartbleed Bug but changing your password on it isn't a bad idea according to the website. The Heartbleed Bug has left a lot of the Internet at risk of silent data hacking, but government websites have been so far safe. Healthcare.gov and the IRS among others had already reported that the OpenSSL vulnerability that made the Heartbleed Bug so dangerous did not apply to them, unlike so many other websites that did recommend a password change.
That's what makes the Saturday post on Healthcare.gov, recommending the password change a bit of a surprise.
'While there's no indication that any personal information has ever been at risk, we have taken steps to address Heartbleed issues and reset consumers' passwords out of an abundance of caution,' the website's new page states. 'This means the next time you visit the website, you'll need to create a new password. We strongly recommend you create a unique password - not one that you've already used on other websites.'
To those concerned the government has already been exploiting the bug for years, the caution no doubt sounds a bit ironic. For that matter, it's just as possible that Google, which delayed releasing information about the bug to the government and public, spurred the new 'abundance of caution.
Shocking absolutely no one, political opponents of the Affordable Care Act seized upon the routine warning as a sign of inevitable hacking of the website and vulnerable user data.
'This astonishing failure leaves millions of Americans vulnerable to cyber threats and identity theft, and the news today that users are being asked to change their passwords speaks volumes to the websites continued vulnerability,' said Congresswoman Diane Black (R-TN) in a release.
Happily since the Affordable Care Act removes the need to list any sort of health information to get insurance, there is a limited amount of personal data that could be taken even if the website weren't already patched against the Heartbleed Bug.
'HealthCare.gov uses many layers of protections to secure your information,' the website assures users. 'There's no indication that Heartbleed has been used against HealthCare.gov or that any personal information has ever been at risk.'
Whether or not this will become effective political leverage by Obamacare opponents on the other hand is much less certain.
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