Hacker Magnet or Sophisticated Tool? Obamacare's Database Debated

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.govexec.com/technology/2013/07/hacker-magnet-or-sophisticated-tool-obamacares-database-debated/66917/

By Charles S. Clark
GovExec.com
July 17, 2013

The centralized data hub that will link agency records on people who sign 
up for Obamacare is either solidly on schedule and impenetrable to 
hackers, or it is floundering and in danger of swelling into "the biggest 
data system of personal information in the history of the U.S."

Both views were displayed Wednesday at a joint subcommittee hearing of the 
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that roped in issues from 
cybersecurity to government mismanagement to the fate of the Affordable 
Care Act to the scandal over political targeting of taxpayer groups by 
parts of the Internal Revenue Service.

Taken together, representatives from the Health and Human Services 
Department, the IRS and auditing agencies appeared confident that the 
Obama administration can meet the health care law’s Oct. 1 deadline for 
opening state insurance exchanges with sufficient safeguards on personal 
information to protect Americans’ privacy.

The Federal Data Services Hub, a $394 million contractor operation run by 
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Columbia, Md., is a tool 
that will allow citizens applying for the new health insurance plans to 
enter their income and personal identification online and get a 
determination of eligibility for tax credits, in many cases within 
seconds. The hub is designed to link databases at HHS and IRS with the 
Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs departments, the Social Security 
Administration, the Office of Personnel Management and the Peace Corps.

[...]

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