Fake Obamacare Websites Could Be Big Problem

Will signing up for Obamacare put your life savings at risk? Computer security expert John McAfee feels that private back accounts and identity theft could quickly become a real problem for Americans signing up for the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

According to the software security company founder, there are no safeguards built into the systems to prevent hackers from scamming Americans.

McAfee stated during a Fox News interview that nearly anyone could launch their own fake Obamacare exchange site and garner enough personal information from participants to gain access to their bank accounts. The software security expert does not think hacking threats will take long to surface.

“Oh, it is seriously bad,” John McAfee said. “Somebody made a grave error, not in designing the program but in simply implementing the web aspect of it. This is going to happen and it’s going to happen very soon. The hacker aspect is only one of the problems. Most people can’t even log onto the system because it’s so complex and error-ridden. Give your Social Security number and date of birth and an hour later someone could empty your bank account. There is no central place where I can go and say, ‘OK, here are all the legitimate brokers and examiners, for all of the states,’ and pick and choose one.”

The computer software expert also went on to say that CGI, a Canadian company contracted to develop the website, designed it improperly and rushed its launch. John McAfee also maintains that the $93 million software price tag attached to the Obamacare website created by the Canadian company is outrageous. He went on to claim that for what the website does from a technological standpoint, it could have been accomplished for about $5 million by about 15 good computer programmers.

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India computer programmers from India were used to code the Obamacare website using Java Script on the user’s computer, he said. The programming process that was used may be a cheap way of accomplishing a task but he also deemed it impractical when there is a large volume of users involved. A simple software upgrade will not solve the website issues, according to McAfee. He deemed the Canadian company staffer who did not create a central depository for the Obamacare website an “idiot.”

“There should be one website, run by the government, you go to that website and then you can click on all the agencies. This is so insane,” he said.

Due to the alleged flaws in the Obamacare software and website, McAfee predicts that “millions” of Americans are going to lose their identities and some of their income via cyber hackers.

“This is a hacker’s wet dream. I cannot believe they did this,” John McAfee concluded.

Meanwhile, even if the Obamacare website (Healthcare.gov) is fixed, some are warning it, too, will threaten privacy. That’s because as part of the law’s implementation, a component called the Federal Data Service Hub will connect seven different government agencies and establish multiple access points to the “sensitive personal information” of participants, according to USA Today. The information includes participant tax returns, health records, Social Security numbers, employment details, and birth dates. The birthdays and Social Security numbers of children are frequent targets of hackers, because the youngsters are years away from signing up for a credit card or completing a tax return – leaving the identity theft undetected for a decade or longer.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) claims that the Federal Data Service Hub is an integral aspect of the eligibility verification systems in order to gauge taxpayer-provided subsidies for the medical care program.

Off The Grid News previously reported that an Obamacare health insurance exchange in Minnesota accidentally released the the private information of 2,400 insurance agents to an insurance broker’s office. The information included Social Security numbers, names and addresses.