Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) recently expressed concern with the security of the Affordable Care Act’s online healthcare exchange website, healthcare.gov, after users were asked to change their passwords.
The Obama administration asked users to change passwords after a review of the website’s vulnerability that was undertaken because of the Heartbleed Internet security flaw.
“Since the first launch of the federal healthcare exchange, I have been greatly concerned about the security and vulnerabilities of healthcare.gov,” Jenkins said. “My colleagues and I request that the administration immediately conduct a review of all open source components used to build healthcare.gov and replace the website flaw with a more secure system. The millions of Americans who are simply trying to comply with the law deserve the absolute best protection when releasing their personal information into a hacker’s dream.”
Jenkins joined seven members of the House of Representatives in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services, IRS and Department of Homeland Security that addressed cybersecurity concerns.
The legislators said the company that built healthcare.gov previously used open-source code that could be vulnerable to data breaches and requested that all open-source components with weaknesses be replaced.
A list of components with vulnerabilities has already been compiled, the lawmakers said, so replacing them would be relatively inexpensive.