The U.S. Government tried to test HealthCare.gov's protection and stability from hackers as they tried to test hack the system themselves.
A report was released Tuesday by the Health and Human Services Department inspector general, an agency who focuses mainly on health care fraud. The government "hackers" found a weakness and when they tried to use it to corrupt the system, they found that they were actually blocked by the system's defenses.
According to the report, HealthCare.gove received an advanced notice of the hacking attempt but was given only a date range. During the period, the agency did not take any special precautions and allowed the system's defense to do its duty. This is a good sign that the government trying to ensure that their security system is better than the standard since hackers today are getting more and more agressive in their field. Any vulnerability in the part of the suystem could post a risk to the federal website.
This testing came about after the news of Home Depo's credit card hacks. This summer, HealthCare.gov was also hacked but there were no personal data stolen from the site. Hackers tried to install a software that could have been used to attack other federal websites, This site has had technical problems when it was first launched and for the first few weeks, had a number of complaints from customers who were not able to use the website fully.
Another comment by the auditors was they remain concerned on the use of encryption technology that doesn't meet certain government standards. The administration gave a formal response that they had taken actions to solve the issue on the encryption. The agency will also keep monitoring closely the site's security.
HealthCare.gove is servicing 36 states. Other states run their own enrollment website.
