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Hackers Stole Income, Immigration and Tax Data In Healthcare.gov Breach, Government Confirms (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the what's-yours-is-mine dept.

Late last month, HealthCare.gov suffered a data breach exposing 75,000 customers. Details were sparse at the time of the breach, but have now learned that hackers obtained "inappropriate access" to a number of broker and agent accounts, which "engaged in excessive searching" of the government's healthcare marketplace systems. TechCrunch reports: [The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)] didn't say how the attackers gained access to the accounts, but said it shut off the affected accounts "immediately." In a letter sent to affected customers this week (and buried on the Healthcare.gov website), CMS disclosed that sensitive personal data -- including partial Social Security numbers, immigration status and some tax information -- may have been taken. According to the letter, the data included name, date of birth, address, sex, and the last four digits of the Social Security number (SSN), if SSN was provided on the application. Other information could include expected income, tax filing status, family relationships, whether the applicant is a citizen or an immigrant, immigration document types and numbers, employer name, pregnancy status, health insurance status, and more. The government did say that no bank account information was stolen.

32 comments

  1. Lol @google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I remember reading about these senior google engineers taking sabatticals to help prop this thing up and people acting like Albert Fucking Einstein was on these case. Now itâ(TM)s been hacked. Quick how can we blame it on Micro$haft?

  2. Enterprise trojan discovered in Broward County by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hackers stole election

  3. Trump 2020 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    4 more years to build that wall

    1. Re:Trump 2020 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Democratic House of Rep will get his tax records now and they will be leaked. When people see how shady his tax dealings have been, he'll be lucky to not wind up in prison.

    2. Re:Trump 2020 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This will be the final nail in the two years of nailing that coffin shut. Pay no attention to the folks taking three days to perform voter fraud.

    3. Re:Trump 2020 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You clowns think he's "hiding" something in his tax returns, lol. You know how I know you've never worked a day in your life? Because you don't know what a tax return is. It's the damn document you send to the government disclosing your financial position. You don't "hide" crimes in your tax returns, for god's sake. You can bet your bottom dollar that 0bama's corrupt and politicized IRS went over those things with a fine tooth comb, probably went back 50 years lol. Why didn't they leak anything about them? Probably because they show him paying far greater percentage of his income to tax than hypocrite socialist filth the likes of Bernie Sanders -- talk about shirking your social responsibility.

      And tax returns? What about muh russia? Just going to try to pretend that whole thing never existed, eh? Sadly for you, there will need to be an urgent second special investigation into the first after it comes out and is a big nothingburger. Then a third investigation into *real* Russian meddling. What did 0bama get for his "more flexibility"? Why did he allow Russians to meddle in the elections on his watch, at the same time lying to the American people that the election could not be hacked, and ordering his cyber security agency to stand down and cease working on options to counter the attacks? Why did he screw up Crimea and Ukraine so so badly? Was it just incompetence, or was it part of his "flexibility"? Why was the uranium one deal allowed to go through?

  4. To whom do we complain? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is the federal government. If our info is stolen can they be sued? Will the responsible parties be held accountable? Or do our complaints fill up the circular file.

    I suspect like most of you that healthy suspicion of such a large and powerful bureaucracy is warranted. But the two most powerful political parties have bought into the notion that larger and more inscrutable is better.

    So to whom do we complain?

    1. Re: To whom do we complain? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google. Or at least their supposed "geniuses" who took sabbaticals to help build it.

    2. Re:To whom do we complain? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can sue the feds... if they give you permission to.
      No seriously, that's how it works.

  5. Re:I hate c6gunner... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I LOL'ed. And then I LOL'ed again. And again. AND AGAIN!

  6. Hmmm by rmdingler · · Score: 1

    Paper credentials and other imitable proofs of identity are going to be the casualty of virtually everyone's failure to secure the public's data.

    It's probably time to invest in the companies at the forefront of biometric identification.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  7. Breaches are as common as ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 0

    ... mass shootings in the US, and the response is the same: "Sorry about that."

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    1. Re:Breaches are as common as ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      The mod score can hit rock bottom, but the disgust at lack of action regarding both goes much deeper than -1.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  8. How much.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How much did the Dump administration and the Republican party pay them to try and cause hysteria around, and thus support for ending, "Obamacare" ??

  9. ACA is 4.8x higher costs than pre-ACA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Fuck you Democrats.

    We pay more for ACA health insurance than any other monthly bills. It is higher than our car payments and higher than our mortgage. The increase for 2019 is 12.4% more than 2018.

    Since 2014 (pre-ACA), our medical insurance costs are 4.8x higher.

    We have ZERO medical conditions.

    Fuck you Democrats. There is NOTHING "affordable" about this.

    1. Re:ACA is 4.8x higher costs than pre-ACA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I CANT WAIT FOR YOU TO DIE! :D Oooooooh yeah! That's exactly what I want to see!

    2. Re:ACA is 4.8x higher costs than pre-ACA by Gavagai80 · · Score: 2

      It costs more partly because the insurance companies are required to actually deliver something now, instead of wiggle out of it as soon as you get sick (whatever your symptoms, they might be traceable to a preexisting condition you're unaware of). Congratulations on having no medical conditions. The whole point of insurance is to pay while you have no medical conditions so that your conditions will be covered if they develop later.

      But if you want affordable, call your congresspeople and demand the option to buy into medicare at cost. Heck, put a 10% markup on young medicare buy-ins to help shore up the fund and it'll still be a fraction of the cost of private insurance.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    3. Re:ACA is 4.8x higher costs than pre-ACA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have the same complaints. Pre-ACA insurance cost my household only 20% what current plan costs, had a lower deductible, and fully covered more things relevant to my family. I was satisfied with my health insurance until the company told me they could no longer legally sell me that plan anymore, despite what the president said. I was satisfied with my doctor until he decided that the added regulations and paperwork weren't worth the hassle and retired early from practicing medicine.

      So I was happy with my plan but couldn't keep my plan. I was happy with my doctor but couldn't keep my doctor. I was looking forward to the $2,500 average I was told I would save per year on my insurance, but I now pay thousands of dollars more per year. And every year I have to shop for a new household plan and every year there are fewer choices and higher costs.

      The only reason more people got insurance after the ACA passed is because it became illegal not to have insurance.

    4. Re:ACA is 4.8x higher costs than pre-ACA by DigressivePoser · · Score: 1

      Congratulations on having no medical conditions. The whole point of insurance is to pay while you have no medical conditions so that your conditions will be covered if they develop later

      No, the whole point of insurance is to mitigate financial risk should a covered event occur. Obamacare has made health insurance premiums and deductibles a financial risk all in themselves.

    5. Re:ACA is 4.8x higher costs than pre-ACA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck you Republicans.

      FTFY.

      ACA is essentially a Republican plan, right down to the insurance company graft.

      If the Democrats had better control over Congress at the time, something more useful may be in place, such as single-payer.

  10. It Wuz H4xx0rz!!!1!1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's just about the clearest way to say "I have nothing to say, please ignore my drivel".

    Thanks for the heads-up, beauhd.

  11. Remember - no more individual mandate tax penalty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What a fiasco the the .gov marketplace is. Not only is it insecure, and plans unaffordable for anybody but the low income folks, its hardly functional. I tried shopping plans and it kept throwing what looked like .NET faults that I'm sure a talented black hat would have a hay day with. I left and googled non Obamacare and bought a plan in less than 5 minutes. It doesn't cover preexisting conditions, but we're healthy and a saved over half! No more penalties in 2019, maybe we can take the family on vacation!

  12. Re:Was O's birth certificate hiding in there? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nope, they don't have computers in Kenya yet.

  13. Put SSN in a newspaper--it's safer by kenai_alpenglow · · Score: 1

    The Govt has compromised my personal data at least 4 times that they've let me know about. No telling how many times they hadn't told me or don't know that it's been compromised. I might as well put an add in a newspaper giving out my SSN--it would let fewer folks know. Remember this whenever the Gov wants to put your info in some type of database. It WILL get out. Many times.

  14. required health insurance is the wrong fix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The solution to health care insurance is not require everyone to have insurance to share the cost, but to get the cost of health care down to where people can afford it.

    $50,000 for an appendectomy. A few years ago with my cost and insurance, being told "you probably have the flu, here's a prescription" for over $1200 is outrageous.

    Fix the costs and we won't need insurance for relatively minor issues.

    --XYZZY--

  15. Repeat after me: by lamer01 · · Score: 2

    You DO NOT need insurance for non-life threatening conditions. Why do we need 10% or $25 co-pays and $2K-$5K deductibles to go get checked out for a runny nose? That is how we all got hoodwinked to think we need this kind of insurance. There should be plans that cover critical life threatening conditions like heart attacks/cancer. Everything else should out of pocket. You would quickly see prices drop for most services as people would actually price-shop for care for the non-life threatening ailments.

    1. Re:Repeat after me: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree completely. The insurance insanity is the biggest problem of our healthcare industry.

      That said, is the new ACA motto "If you like your hacker you can keep your hacker?"

  16. Pre-ACA $5K Deductible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Post ACA $8500 Deductible.

    I'd love to get quotes on $10K, $15K, $20K, $25K deductible insurance offers. It is the major issues where we need coverage. Heart attack, cancer, MS,

    A broken arm or leg or de-worming (we like to travel) is something we'd rather get handled for cash with the lower non-insurance-hassle pricing. Same for vaccinations and boosters - cash.

    Basically, everything that doesn't need a hospital stay we want to pay cash.

  17. Not A Customer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Saying I am a customer of healthcare.gov is like saying a slave is an employee. I was compelled under pain of law to get hooked into that mess.

    capthca: newspeak

  18. Impersonating me AGAIN? apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: I pity c6gunner caught impersonating me (his name's the submitter signing "APK") https://linux.slashdot.org/com... as he obviously forgot to submit as AC vs. using his registered 'lusername' instead, lol!

    * Simply because he tried to INSULT me & I made him a COMPLETELY FAIR CHALLENGE he couldn't meet or beat by showing me he's done better work in the past prior to his impersonating me there.

    APK

    P.S.=> You shouldn't throw stones when you live in a glass house boys - especially vs. me... apk