HealthCare.gov Security Gaps Identified In Contractor Documents

A congressional watchdog investigating the troubled launch of the Obama administration’s online health insurance marketplace HealthCare.gov released a handful of contractors’ statements on Tuesday showing they were concerned about security vulnerabilities before and soon after the site launched.

In response to the release from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., a Health and Human Services Department spokeswoman said all of the concerns noted by the contractors had been addressed or were being addressed and that the entire system met federal standards for information security.

There have been no sucessful cyberattacks against HealthCare.gov to date and no one has maliciously gathered citizens' personal data, spokeswoman Joanne Peters said.

Contractors last week turned over a cache of HealthCare.gov documents to Issa in response to a subpoena. They released the documents over the objection of HHS officials who argued releasing the documents publicly could give hackers a roadmap to the site’s security vulnerabilities and endanger insurance seekers’ personal information.