** ** http://washingtonexaminer.com/obamacare-data-hub-a-honey-pot-for-id-thieves-warn-critics/article/2533323 **** Obamacare data hub a 'honey pot' for ID thieves, warn critics****
The data hub President Obama<http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/section/barack-obama>'s health care team is creating to exchange personal health and financial information on Obamacare<http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/section/obamacare>users will be a ripe target for computer hackers and identity thieves, charge critics who claim it hasn't been tested for security flaws.**** "It's the greatest collection of private identification information ever assembled on Americans that will be put into one place," said Rep. Patrick Meehan, who chairs a House cybersecurity subcommittee. "It is every bit of sensitive information one would need to know to completely take over the identification of a person," said the Pennsylvania lawmaker.**** The Obamacare data hub, he added, "creates a honey pot and the day that it goes online it is going to be a target for hackers and others and they are unprepared to protect the system."**** At an <http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/section/obamacare> oversight hearing last week<http://washingtonexaminer.com/obamacare-czar-begs-for-public-trust-in-handling-their-personal-health-info/article/2533245>, administration officials said that the hub, still under creation, will be used to verify Obamacare applications. It will share information among federal agencies, like the IRS<http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/section/IRS>, and state agencies. A separate system will keep store key information such as income, Social Security<http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/section/social-security>numbers, email addresses, and even pregnancy status of Obamacare users. **** Officials called on the public and Congress to "trust" that the information will be protected from hackers, but several lawmakers balked.**** Asked if he trusted the administration to protect the personal health and finance information of Obamacare users, Rep. James Lankford said "No." Lankford explained that "there has not been a testing between all the different agencies. We're now down to right at two months and we don't have a full working test of this and you're talking about opening up a portal from an individual state that will run to multiple different federal agencies and it is a real target for attack." Lankford chaired the Obamacare oversight hearing last week.**** Another critic, Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee, said "I don't trust them for a couple of reasons. One is that we have already become skeptical of our government in several other security breaches." Black has introduced legislation<http://black.house.gov/press-release/congressman-black-chairman-boustany-unveil-bill-stop-abuse-taxpayer-information>to protect the personal information of Americans in the Obamacare program. **** Meehan added that "the ability to protect it creates grave concern. I have great concerns."**** At the oversight hearing last week, however, Obama officials assured critics that the information collection and sharing systems will be secure.* *** "I want to assure you and all Americans, that when they fill out their [health insurance] marketplace applications, they can trust the information they're providing is protected," said Marilyn Tavenner, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.**** __._,_.___ __,_._,___ -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
