Leakage of personal data has been reported for many American users of the medical insurance exchange in Washington, District of Columbia. It was revealed that the leak was due to the common mistake of a technical employee of DC Health Link. Mila Kofman, Executive Director of the Department for Exchange of Medical Manuals of the Colombia district, has confirmed that the data leak was discovered in early March and affected around 56 thousand current and past customers, which included members of congress, their families, and staff.
Kofman stated that the FBI target group in cybersecurity was brought in to investigate and resolved the issue of the incorrectly configured computer server of DC Health Link. As a result, hackers were able to steal two large data registers containing customer information. The stolen data reportedly included confidential information of 17 members of the House of Representatives, 43 members of their families, 585 employees of the House of Representatives, and 231 members of their families.
Kofman has since apologized to the victims of the leakage but also praised her agency for their timely identification and elimination of the vulnerability. The victims were offered credit monitoring services to avoid any fraudulent activities. Kofman emphasized transparency and openness and ensured that the leak would not be evaded.
Data leaks due to poorly tuned servers have become common in recent times. Vulnerable Microsoft SQL servers were detected by robbery programs, and hundreds of them were reportedly attacked. It is essential to ensure server security and take the necessary measures to prevent data breaches.