◼ Attkisson Reports Dire Warnings Not to Launch Healthcare.gov Were Ignored: "I'm Tired of Cover-Ups." - Sharyl Attkisson/DAILY SIGNAL
...Serious security problems with HealthCare.gov were exposed in stories I reported for CBS News in November and December of 2013. They revealed that Teresa Fryer, the chief information security officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, explicitly recommended the website should not be launched Oct. 1, 2013, due to security concerns, but was overruled by her superiors.
Fryer said she had warned, both verbally and in a briefing, that the website carried “high [security] risks” and possible exposure to “attacks.” Fryer also said that she refused to put her name on a letter recommending the website be given a temporary authority to operate while the issues were sorted out.
Additionally, Henry Chao, the CMS project manager in charge of building the website, was apparently kept in the dark about serious security failures. Those included “high-risk” issues, flagged by the government’s security testing firm, which indicated “the threat and risk potential [to the system] is limitless.”
Meantime, internal documents newly released by Republicans on the Oversight Committee detail agency infighting and secrecy efforts surrounding the troubled launch of HealthCare.gov.
Fryer indicated that she was frustrated by fellow CMS officials who were not providing a true picture of security testing prior to the launch.
“I am tired of the cover-ups,” she emailed a colleague, stating that she intended to give “a truthful update of exactly what was going on” to an official at Health and Human Services who had asked for a status report.
◼ 8 ways the Obama administration is blocking information - AP
