DC Health Link data breach blamed on human error – NBC4 Washington

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The recent personal data breach of thousands of users of the Washington DC Health Insurance Exchange, including members of Congress, was caused by fundamental human error, according to a top administrator.

The revelation comes from prepared statements submitted ahead of Wednesday’s congressional hearing to investigate the matter. In her statement, Mila Kofman, executive director of the District of Columbia Health Benefit Exchange Authority, says the data breach was first discovered in early March and includes basic personal information including date of birth, numbers Social Security and contact information for 56,415 current and former clients, including members of Congress, their families and staff.

A DC Health Link data breach exposed thousands of people’s data, including lawmakers and Capitol Hill staff. News4’s Derrick Ward reports.

Kofman says his office immediately called in the FBI’s Cybersecurity Task Force and the security flaw was quickly located to a particular computer server that was “misconfigured to allow access to reports on the server without authentication. appropriate”. Based on our investigation to date, we believe the misconfiguration was not intentional but human error.”

This security breach allowed an unidentified hacker to steal two reports containing the client’s information, some of which was later offered for sale on an online forum. The issue first came to public attention when members of the House of Representatives and the Senate were told that they and their employees may have been affected.

Kofman says the data stolen included that of 17 House members and 43 of their dependents, and 585 House staff and their 231 dependents.

In his testimony, Kofman apologizes for the breach, but praises his agency’s response once the leak was detected by identifying and closing the security hole and offering immediate protection against identity theft and corruption. credit monitoring to data subjects.

“We are not afraid of this breach. We have been and remain committed to being open and transparent,” Kofman’s testimony states.

Wednesday. the House Oversight Committee’s subcommittee on cybersecurity, information technology, and government innovation will interview Kofman and Catherine Szpindor, executive director of the House of Representatives, in a joint session with deputy – House Administration Committee Oversight Committee.

The two subcommittee chairs, Reps. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) and Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia), said in a joint statement last week that the DC Health link data breach put thousands of people at risk, including members of Congress, congressional staff and family members. People who have trusted DC Health Exchange to keep their personal health data secure are rightly concerned about the potential consequences of this breach on their personal lives. They are counting on us to investigate how it happened, how it could have been avoided, how the fallout can be mitigated, and how to prevent a recurrence.

The hearing is part of a larger effort by the Republican-held House of Representatives to increase its oversight of the District of Columbia government. Congress has already reversed a rewrite of DC’s penal code that passed the Senate with significant Democratic support. This week, the House will also vote on a police reform bill passed by the DC Council last year, though the move has bleaker prospects in the Senate and President Joe Biden has already said he would oppose it. his veto, if necessary.

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AP Technology Writer Frank Bajak in Boston contributed to this report.

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