The US health care registration website, HealthCare.gov has been the latest victim of a cyberattack. The unidentified hackers infiltrated the insurance website in July this year and a malware was uploaded that remained undetected till August 25th. However, the Department of Health and Human Services has informed that no data was stolen from the breach.
In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said, “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. We have taken measures to further strengthen security.”
The malware was put in place to use the server for “denial of service attacks” on other government websites. As CNET report, “The attack installed malware on Healthcare.gov, which was likely to be used to attack other websites in the future, according to investigators.”
Although HHS officials said relevant steps are being taken to “further strengthen security,” this attack comes in the wake of a long series of recent data breaches like the ones at JP Morgan, UPS Stores and the European Central Bank to name a few.
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(Image Credit: Daniel Rehn)
