Following reports that hundreds of millions of consumers may have had their personal information compromised due to security breaches, Democrats are telling House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) to put his money where his mouth is: you investigated HealthCare.gov, now what about Target?
Neiman Marcus on Saturday became the latest retailer to disclose that hackers stole credit card information from its customers, following a wide-spread breach from Target Corp. Now Democrats are calling for a House Oversight Committee and Government Reform hearing in the same spirit of an extensive Republican investigation examining security risks associated with the federal health marketplace portal, HealthCare.gov.
“Unfortunately, while the Committee was conducting its investigation during this time period last fall, up to 110 million Americans were subjected to one of the most massive information technology breaches in history when their credit, debit, and other personal information reportedly was compromised at Target stores and online in November and December,” Ranking Member Elijah Cummings wrote in a Tuesday letter addressed to Issa.
The House on Friday passed a bill with bipartisan support that would require the administration to notify within two days anyone impacted by such a security breach on HealthCare.gov. Democrats, including the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, countered by claiming the bill was intended to mislead about the Affordable Care Act.
There have been no successful breaches of the website to date, they said in a memo last week, nor does it collect or store any detailed consumer personal medical or health information.
Cummings notes that Republicans have justified their investigation into HealthCare.gov’s security by citing the Target breach, as House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) did Friday morning, so why not a similar hearing into Target?
“For these reasons, I request that the Committee engage with Target, in a collaborative and bipartisan way, not only to help protect the millions of consumers affected by this massive breach, but to learn lessons that can help us improve federal information technology systems and procedures,” he adds.
