HealthCare.gov users advised to change passwords due to Heartbleed

Users of the federal heath care exchange site have been advised to change their passwords this weekend after the Obama administration reviewed the government’s vulnerability to the Heartbleed Internet security bug.  Senior administration officials told the Associated Press that there was no indication that the HealthCare.gov site had been compromised and the action is being taken out of an abundance of caution. 

If you signed up for insurance through HealthCare.gov, you need to change your password. Why? Because Heartbleed, that’s why. In a message posted to the website, the U.S. government says that it decided to reset all passwords due to the Heartbleed bug, which put millions of websites at risk of cyberattack after it was revealed to the world earlier this month. The government says Healthcare.gov was not affected by Heartbleed, but that the team is forcing a password reset, just in case. From the warning: “Recently, you may have heard about a new internet security weakness, known as Heartbleed, which is impacting some websites. HealthCare.gov uses many layers of protections to secure your information. While there’s no indication that any personal information has ever been at risk, we have taken steps to address Heartbleed issues and reset consumers’ passwords out of an abundance of caution. This means the next time you visit the website, you’ll need to create a new password. We strongly recommend you create a unique password – not one that you’ve already used on other websites.”