Thursday, January 16, 2014

Hacktastic!

Yesterday, Bill posted about some of the travails facing Golden Staters trying to muddle through the Medi-Cal/Exchange labyrinth. The troubles don't stop there, however:

"Two months ago, L.A.-based security researcher Kristian Erik Hermansen was signing up for Obamacare via the Covered California site ... critics started calling the main federal Obamacare site a “hacker’s dream” ... Hermansen discovered a vulnerability that would allow someone to take over another person’s account on the California site"

While this is no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention, there's also am more sinister element at play here:

"Hermansen then spoke by phone to the lawyer and a chief security person. “They were not interested in talking about the security issues but about getting the video or any other online mention of the flaw taken down"

See, the problem isn't the wide-open portal, it's the folks trying to alert the folks who run it that there is, in fact, a problem. I'm reminded of a certain Middle East river.

More alarming still, though, is that that it's not just the state folks yelling "burn the witch:" now the FBI has warned Mr Hermansen to zip his lips. That'll sure make the problem go away.
blog comments powered by Disqus