The hacker was able to break in and upload malicious software, but reports say that personal data remained safe.
According to federal officials, a hacker was able to make its way into the HealthCare.gov federal insurance exchange website back in July and even managed to upload malicious software into the site.
That said, investigators have stated that there is no evidence that consumer personal data was accessed.
They said that personal data of consumers was neither viewed nor taken during the breach of the federal insurance exchange site. At the moment, the reports from officials are that the hacker was able to gain access only to a server that is used for testing code on the site. While this certainly doesn’t mean that this insurance news is good, it is also clear that the problem could have been much worse, and that no threat to consumer private data had occurred.
The server was connected to other parts of the federal insurance exchange website that contained more sensitive data.
Authorities pointed out, though, that the areas to which the server was connected had considerably higher security protections when they contained any kind of sensitive data. Therefore, while it could have been possible for the hacker to move to other areas of the network in order to attempt to view more protected information, this would have been much more difficult, according to a Department of Health and Human Services official.
There has been no indication that the hacker was able to do this or even that he or she had tried. According to officials, it doesn’t look as though an actual HealthCare.gov server had been targeted by the hacker.
Still, even though this breach of one of the code testing servers of the federal insurance exchange site didn’t appear to do any damage that could impact American consumers and the privacy of their information, it still is rather disconcerting to many people that it happened in the first place, if only because of the ease with which it appears to have happened, and the magnitude of the potential damage that could have occurred if the hacker had been more skilled and had greater intend to cause harm.
