Obamacare marketplaces raise data security concerns

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57605564/obamacare-marketplaces-raise-data-security-concerns/

By STEPHANIE CONDON
CBS NEWS
October 2, 2013

Minnesota insurance broker Jim Koester was looking for information about 
assisting with Obamacare implementation; instead, what landed in his inbox 
last month was a document filled with the names, Social Security numbers 
and other pieces of personal information belonging to his fellow 
Minnesotans.

In one of the first breaches of the new Obamacare online marketplaces, an 
employee of the Minnesota marketplace, called MNsure, accidentally emailed 
Koester a document containing personally identifying information for more 
than 2,400 insurance agents, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. MNsure 
was able to quickly undo the damage because Koester cooperated with them, 
but the incident left him unnerved.

"The more I thought about it, the more troubled I was," Koester told the 
newspaper. "What if this had fallen into the wrong hands? It's scary. If 
this is happening now, how can clients of MNsure be confident their data 
is safe?"

Online marketplaces like MNsure, called exchanges, are now running in all 
50 states and the District of Columbia, as part of the changes established 
under the Affordable Care Act. Open enrollment began on Tuesday, and as 
many as 7 million people are expected to sign up for private insurance 
plans on the exchanges in the next six months. Personal information for 
all of those customers will be routed from a federal datahub to the 
state-based exchanges, leaving people like Koester, and some health data 
experts, concerned about the program's security.

[...]



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