back to article Cyber-hoodlum tripped, fell, landed in Obama's Healthcare.gov server

Officials at the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) have today confirmed that one of the Healthcare.gov servers was hacked. The system was compromised in July, when an as-yet unidentified miscreant managed to worm his or her way in and install malware. The security breach was spotted and the machine – which was …

  1. JCitizen
    Coat

    They've got their heads in the sand..

    of they think that pitiful excuse for a secure site hasn't been totally compromised by now. The entire IT security industry has been joking about it since it went up!

    1. Crazy Operations Guy
      Joke

      Re: They've got their heads in the sand..

      "The entire IT security industry has been joking about it since it went up!"

      It was actually up long enough for someone to attack it?

      1. BillG
        Big Brother

        Re: They've got their heads in the sand..

        "Our review indicates that the server did not contain consumer personal information; data was not transmitted outside the agency, and the website was not specifically targeted," a DHHS spokesman told The Wall Street Journal.

        Sorry, I don't believe it. This sounds too much like spin. Given the sorry state of HealthCare.gov (the website contract was awarded to a Canadian company run by a close friend of Michelle O.) I think it's more likely that consumer personal info was compromised.

  2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Trollface

    "If this happened anywhere other than HealthCare.gov, it wouldn't be news"

    Is this Hillary "vast right-wing conspiracy" of the Klingon years sticking it to the poor prez again? Even though he fulfills every hardliner's wishes to the utmost of his ability? Let the man have his little personal victory in peace!

    1. Cipher
      Facepalm

      Re: "If this happened anywhere other than HealthCare.gov, it wouldn't be news"

      Of course. If it happened to NORAD or the IRS, no one would be talking about this.

      It is only because it is Obama's pride and joy that journalists are covering this attack, move along, nothing more to see here...

      1. Wzrd1 Silver badge

        Re: "If this happened anywhere other than HealthCare.gov, it wouldn't be news"

        Heh, in short, they accidentally installed a honeypot.

        Meanwhile, the media ignores the hell out of numerous DoD compromises, every government agency having compromises and focuses on a code testing machine that was compromised.

        Oh well, any hyperbole to try to kill a first, faltering, half step toward universal health care in the only industrialized nation in the world to not have universal health care.

        Of course, the right wing media spout off how universal health care is communism and all of Europe is socialist-communist (they typically cannot ascertain the difference between the two systems) and ignores monarchies that most assuredly not be socialist by definition.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Art of War

    My buddy runs a medium size online system. Anyone trying to hack into it might eventually succeed, but not really. They'd eventually be redirected down the rabbit hole into another system containing zero actual data. There they will be entertained for hours while my friend gathers information and feeds them 'candy'.

  4. Stevie

    Bah!

    They really should catch that 4chin chap CNN were complaining about before he does something really bad.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Maybe the hacker actually fixed something and it took the government months to figure out why things were working...

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