House committee hears testimony on DC health data breach
A top administrator with Washington’s health insurance exchange apologized to House members on Wednesday for the data breach that resulted in the disclosure of personal information for thousands of users, including members of Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — A top administrator with Washington's health insurance exchange apologized to House members on Wednesday for the data breach that resulted in the disclosure of personal information for thousands of users, including members of Congress.
The leak was the result of human error, Mila Kofman, executive director of the District of Columbia Health Benefit Exchange Authority, told a joint session of two House Oversight subcommittees.
She said a server was incorrectly configured in mid-2018 when they installed the internal communications program Slack. That faulty configuration allowed an unauthorized individual to access the server and steal two reports containing personal information of “56,415 current and past customers including members of Congress, their families, and staff.”
Some of that information was later offered up for sale in an online forum. The issue first came to public attention when members of the House of Representatives and the Senate were informed that they and their staffers may have been affected.
