OBAMACARE HACKED? No Signup Problems in Michigan May Be Rare in U.S.

Glitches May Be Caused by Political Opponents, Says Internet Expert

October 27, 2013
By: Dave Rogers

This morning, Saturday, October 26, 2013, about 8:30 a.m. a 76-year-old Bay City resident accessed the federal website healthcare.gov.

The citizen immediately logged on, put in basic information and was able to read a list of options. That took all of three minutes.

Within an hour, the phone rang and a scheduler from St. Johns, Michigan, was on the wire asking to set up an appointment with a health insurance provider.

Everything was flawless, simple and uncomplicated.

If this reporter can get into the federal website so easily and be contacted quickly by a contractor, what's wrong with the rest of the country?

Paul Delaup, an Internet security consultant, wrote to the New Orleans Times Picayune recently his suspicions that the government health care site might be hacked, causing the much-discussed "glitches."

The Syrian Electronic Army hacked the U.S. Marine website, he observed, and Computer World newspaper stated that Iran is accused of hacking into the Navy computer.

"These actions occur every day but are seldom reported," wrote Delaup, commenting:

"Access to Obamacare was to be available on the website healthcare.gov the first day of October. As we all know, it wasn't.

"While trying to search the website, there are phrases such as, 'We have a lot of visitors on this site right now' and 'Please stay on this page.' The problem is not glitches, it is hacking."

Hacking into U.S. government computers is not impossible. A very common method of hacking is called cross-site scripting, says Delaup. This occurs when a user inputs malicious data, or "malware, " into a website, which causes the application to do something it wasn't intended to do.

Other forms of hacking, such as "drive-by downloading," are much worse, said Delaup, concluding:

"If online access to applying for Obamacare is not available, it will cause some people to become frustrated and delay, or even refrain from, applying.

"Computer hacking can be an easy, efficient way of protesting. If the problem is not solved, it can be compounded with more serious types of protest."

If Delaup is right, and the experience of this reporter in Michigan seems to indicate he's onto something, then we are dealing with a massive crime wave that is extremely costly to we taxpayers.

Congressional hearings need to take a very different approach: finding the hackers rather than berating public officials who are trying to do their job. ###