House Homeland Security To Hold Healthcare.gov Cybersecurity Hearing

The House Homeland Security Committee has scheduled a cybersecurity hearing Nov. 13 targeted at Healthcare.gov.

The hearing will feature two panels, one with representatives of the Department of Homeland Security and one with Luke Chung, the president of software development firm FMS, who has been highly critical of the site.

"Healthcare.gov's flaws aren't merely about trying to access the site, there are larger issues yet to be resolved," said Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas.). "Americans are entering their most sensitive personal data into the website and now the same people who told us the system would work are telling us it is secure. As Americans start to submit their personal information, we must examine how safe that information is once it's placed on Healthcare.gov, the federal healthcare exchanges and the Datahub."

Part of the Republican pushback on the healthcare law and troubled with the Web site has been questions about the security of personal information on the site.

For example, Joe Barton (R-Texas.) last week cited "buried" code in the site that suggested a user's information would not be kept private and posted the code language on his Facebook page.

Democrats have countered that Republicans are trying to scare people away from the site.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.