The personal information of roughly 75,000 people was leaked in a data breach of the Healthcare.gov system October 13.
The centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the breach October 19, after detecting “anomalous activity in the Federally Facilitated Exchanges,” but offered assurances that Healthcare.gov is still active and operational.
“I want to make clear to the public that HealthCare.gov and the Marketplace Call Center are still available, and open enrollment will not be negatively impacted. We are working to identify the individuals potentially impacted as quickly as possible so that we can notify them and provide resources such as credit protection,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma.
Healthcare providers in general are a frequent target of hackers. Minnesota’s Department of Heatlh and Human Services was breached earlier this year and compromised the data of 21,000 low-income residents, and reports estimate that 45% of all ransomware attacks targeted the healthcare industry. In addition to outdated or inadequate security, the nature of the industry itself requires extensive information on patients that attracts identity thieves.
Read more about the story here.
