No security ever built into Obamacare site: Hacker -- CNBC, Matthew J. Belvedere

[bsteadman]

No security ever built into Obamacare site: Hacker

CNBC
Matthew J. Belvedere
11/25/2013

Excerpt:

It could take a year to secure the risk of "high exposures" of personal information on the federal Obamacare online exchange, a cybersecurity expert told CNBC on Monday.

"When you develop a website, you develop it with security in mind. And it doesn't appear to have happened this time," said David Kennedy, a so-called "white hat" hacker who tests online security by breaching websites. He testified on Capitol Hill about the flaws of HealthCare.gov last week.

"It's really hard to go back and fix the security around it because security wasn't built into it," said Kennedy, chief executive of TrustedSec. "We're talking multiple months to over a year to at least address some of the critical-to-high exposures on the website itself."

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversaw the implementation of the website, the components used to build the site are compliant with standards set by Federal security authorities.

"The privacy and security of consumers' personal information are a top priority for us. Security testing happens on an ongoing basis using industry best practices to appropriately safeguard consumers' personal information," said the spokesperson.

Another online security expert—who spoke at last week's House hearing and then on CNBC—said the federal Obamacare website needs to be shut down and rebuilt from scratch. Morgan Wright, CEO of Crowd Sourced Investigations said: "There's not a plan to fix this that meets the sniff test of being reasonable."

Last month, a Sept. 27 government memorandum surfaced in which two HHS officials said the security of the site had not been properly tested before it opened, creating "a high risk."

HHS had explained then that steps were taken to ease security concerns after the memo was written, and that consumer information was secure. Technicians fixed a security bug in the password reset function in late October, the agency said.

But on CNBC, Kennedy disputed those claims, saying vulnerabilities remain on "everything from hacking someone's computer so when you visit the website it actually tries to hack your computer back, all the way to being able to extract email addresses, users names—first name, last name—[and] locations."

Government officials and contractors have been working around the clock for weeks, releasing fixes on HealthCare.gov nightly with the goal of meeting the Obama administration's self-imposed deadline of the end of the month to have the site working smoothly.

"When you look at the site itself, it could be really good. It could do really well. They're just not building the security into the site itself," said Kennedy. "Putting your information on there is definitely a risk."

The federal portal serves 36 states not operating their own health insurance exchanges. Fourteen other states and the District of Columbia run their own marketplaces. All of them launched on Oct. 1 as part of the Obamacare provision mandating most Americans have health-care coverage for next year or face tax penalties.

Kennedy said those state-operated exchanges also face security risks. "These are going to be a large area for attack." He pointed to a problem on the Vermont website on Friday. Officials overseeing the Vermont Health Connect website confirmed a security breach on the system last month.
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View the complete article, including video, at:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101225308

[bsteadman]

“Obamacare for dummies”. An “Obamacare in a nutshell” and ways to solve healthcare deficiency by Doctor and Attorney Orly Taitz

TaitzReport.com
Orly Taitz, Esq.
12/2/2013

Excerpt:

I feel that the main issue with Obamacare is in the fact that it is a takeover of the Healthcare by the government, a dictatorial regime by the government in telling people, which plans they have to have, demanding that they pay for the plans, for services that they do not want and cannot afford, just to redistribute the wealth, to take from ones to give to others. It is a shakedown of the middle class and pathological lying by Obama, who promised that people can keep the plans that they like, while he made such changes to the law and such Draconian requirements for grandfathering of insurance plans that ultimately none of the current plans will be kept. 5 million who had individual plans, already lost their plans. 100 million are projected to lose their plans when companies will have to comply with the mandate, premiums and deductibles have gone up for majority of Americans.

Wealthiest Americans, who own large corporations, will benefit, as they are cutting employee’s hours from 40 to 29 and take away their benefits, take the benefits from their families. Best hospitals and doctors do not participate in Obamacare, since it is the lowest possible denominator: cheapest hospitals and doctors, less quality for higher price. Many will not be able to keep their doctors and hospitals and instead of paying $2,500 less, as Obama promised, will be paying $7,500 more for a family of 4 per year. If they wish better care and better doctors, they will pay extra, as it is the case in most countries with socialized healthcare.

Obamacare is a huge government bureaucracy, which will bread more inefficiency, waste, nepotism, corruption, bribery of governmental officials, kickbacks and outright theft.; Just the beginning of Obamacare is an example of such corruption, where we the taxpayers were robbed of nearly a billion dollars to prepare a website, which should have cost only 1-10 million to create. One can only imagine the magnitude of kickbacks built in there.

Obamacare is a costly gimmick. The number of 47 million uninsured that is being thrown arounfd by Obama, is a bogus number as well. Study after study showed that it includes 9 million, who are not US citizens, 17 million young and healthy people, who simply do not want to buy insurance, as they feel that they do not need it, some 12 million Americans of different ages, who earn $50,000 or more and can purchase insurance and chose not to do so.
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View the complete post at:

http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/?p=441684