Healthcare Enrollees Vulnerable After Cybersecurity Breach

The website used for enrollment in healthcare coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been affected by the Heartbleed bug, according to a Huffington Post report.

Although there is no evidence the healthcare enrollees' information has been compromised, individuals who created accounts on the HealthCare.gov website are being told to change their passwords "following an administration-wide review of the government's vulnerability" to the recently discovered Internet security threat known as Heartbleed, according to the report.

The White House uses OpenSSL, the encryption technology that is affected by Heartbleed, to protect user privacy on government websites, according to the report.

There is now a message posted on the healthcare website that reads "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," according to the report.

More Articles on Data Security:

UPMC Reports 27,000 Victims of Data Breach
4 Steps to Mitigate Data Security Risks, Maintain HIPAA Compliance
University Urology Notifies 1,144 Patients Their PHI Was Provided to a Competing Provider 

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