This video discusses concerns about the health care website used by the United States government and how easily it can be hacked. This website is the governments largest collection of personal data. Many leaders do not seem concerned about how easily that the website can be hacked and how unprotected the website is. Do you think that the government should put more resources into ensuring the safety of American's personal information? What do you think the next course of action should be?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/27/is-your-obamacare-information-safe/?intcmp=latestnews
This reminds me a little bit of my main qualm with the NSA. I suspected that something much like the NSA was going on long before the Snowden leaks, but I didn't worry about it much until Snowden came forward. The reason was that if someone like Snowden could so easily tap into the data and classified documents, then there really is no guarantee that the data the NSA is collecting is safe. Similarly, it seems unlikely that Obamacare information is completely secure.
ReplyDeleteI think institutions, public and private (a new bank/tech company seems to have leaks every week) have much to learn in regards to data security. My hope is that we'll soon develop technology that makes passwords and security questions seem antiquated.
Government should most definitely put more resources into security of this information at the risk of cyber attacks. This topic of security of private information is somewhat relevant in my SIP - marketing a medical device containing secure patient information. One of the largest threats to my product is patient security of information: consumers are fearful of their information being leaked and putting so much information in one location is setting the perfect recipe for a cyber attack. It has been estimated that information in the health care sector accounts for 44% of all identity theft in the U.S. and 36% of Americans label themselves as highly concerned that their collected personal information/data will be compromised.
ReplyDeleteFrom this article, it's evident that this database is capable of being hacked - and even scarier, the government does not have to even legally tell you if your information has been hacked. I think enrollees should feel nervous about their private information, as it is being placed into a highly vulnerable field of data for hackers to abuse. Based on the vulnerability, the history of healthcare data hacks, and the amount of personal data that will appeal to hackers, it should be a priority for government to assure security of information before something potentially terrible happens to this field of data.
I agree with Cam. If consumers are putting their information into the Obamacare database then there should be work done to ensure that the information is secure. As Phil pointed out an increasing number of companies are facing cyber attacks and with the large number of consumers using Obamacare the risk is very high. Yet despite these risks the government does not seem to be making any large attempt to increase security or prevent attacks.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Scott and Cam. Cyber security should definitely be a priority of the Obama administration and whatever political agenda takes power next. Just look at the past several years: wikileaks, icloud hack, snapchat hack, target credit card hack, russian email hack. Cyber hackers are becoming more and more sophisticated and it doesn't seem like we as the victims are doing much to prevent cyber theft. This must become a priority so our information is safe.
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