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CBS: Software Experts Identify Multiple Security Issues with Obamacare Website

November 5, 2013

The Obamacare website has serious security issues that has already compromised some users' personal information, CBS This Morning reported Tuesday.

Technology experts tell CBS that there was not nearly enough testing of the Obamacare website to ensure its security, and real-life examples are popping up of personal information being compromised, in spite of promises from such White House officials as press secretary Jay Carney.

South Carolina attorney Thomas Dougall and his wife signed up in October, but he received a troubling phone call from a North Carolina man who also registered and was shocked to get the Dougalls' eligibility letters, which included his name and address.

"It's just a system that we've been continually told was secure and now I found out it's not secure," Dougall said.

While a spokeswoman for Health and Human Services told CBS that steps had been taken to fix that particular problem, in this instance repairing a faulty software code, experts told reporter Jan Crawford that multiple security issues remain, including with usernames and passwords.

As a test, CBS gave one technology expert the real healthcare.gov username of a CBS employee, and within seconds, he identified the specific security question she used to reset her password.

Sean Henry, the former assistant director of the FBI's cyber division, said the security issues need to be taken seriously.

"If somebody's got the ability to look at a source code and able to reverse-engineer that and identify what somebody's personal questions are, that should be of concern," Henry said.

Published under: CBS , Jay Carney , Obamacare