The Heartbleed Bug has hit again, causing a new scare that is affecting the millions who signed up for the White House's Heatlhcare.gov earlier this year. New fears are emerging that user data may have been compromised and a new urging from officials to users to change their passwords in order to ensure full safety of their information.
Despite the fear that millions of Americans personal information could have been stolen, the government was adamant that they have no evidence presently that the Heartbleed Bug has been able to take personal data, including financial information, from users who signed up for what has been popularly dubbed "Obamacare."
"Recently, you may have heard about a new internet security weakness, known as Heartbleed, which is impacting some websites," a published statement from HealthCare.gov says, urging Americans to remain vigilant against any potential threat online to their personal information.
"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," the statement adds.
Many citizens are worried that they could have had numerous data taken as a result of the bug, but Google attempted to allay fears recently over the safety and security of the Internet.
Google Product Manager Matthew O'Connor wrote in a blog post that "key Google services including Gmail, YouTube, Wallet, Play, Apps, App Engine, AdWords, DoubleClick, Maps, Maps Engine and Earth" have all been updated and the Heartbleed bug is no longer an issue for users.
"We will continue working closely with the security research and open source communities, as doing so is one of the best ways to know how to keep our users safe," O'Connor wrote in the post.
As users watch the rumblings in the tech world over the bug, many are beginning to question the intentions of the companies responsible for protecting users' safety and private information. The bug has potentially compromised thousands, if not millions, of users.
With the controversy and commentary on the ups and downs of the HealthCare.gov website - which saw crashes in its infant stage - the White House is likely to keep a watchful eye on the site in order to ensure that it functions as it was designed to do in order to deliver services to the over seven million who signed up for the government-sponsored healthcare insurance.
