Rep. Bentivolio Introduces the Safe and Secure Federal Websites Act

Press Release

Congressman Kerry Bentivolio (R-MI) has introduced the Safe and Secure Federal Websites Act, to protect the privacy and security of Americans who access federal websites.

The bill is an urgent response to the launch of healthcare.gov, which has been proven to have no effective security features to protect the sensitive personal information of its users.

"In its haste to implement Obamacare, the White House has acted with reckless disregard when it comes to protecting the public from hackers," Rep. Bentivolio remarked. "With this website, they have jeopardized not only the personal information of users attempting to obtain health insurance, but also potentially compromised dozens of other federal agencies and their systems. This is a vital issue is deserving of the full attention of Congress. We must act now to protect our constituents."

This bill requires Healthcare.gov and future federal websites that collect personal information, such as social security numbers, be reviewed by GAO and certified as secure by the issuing agency's Chief Information Officer before being made available to the public. Further, any federal websites published after July 1, 2013 that are not certified as secure must be taken down until they are secure.

At a recent congressional hearing, software security experts outlined multiple massive security flaws for healthcare.gov. This includes a complete lack of security oversight, an inability to detect present and future attacks, a design philosophy that ignored security, an inability to conduct complete end-to-end security testing, and protection against "phishing" websites.

More study is needed to determine the extent of the threat created to the public from Healthcare.gov. The website is an immediate public security risk and should be taken down immediately before any additional breaches are possible.

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