As a result of the Heartbleed bug the Department of Health and Human Services is requiring consumers to change their password for the Obamacare or HealthCare.gov website. A notice was posted on the website notifying users. Although HealthCare.gov has not reported any negative instances related to the Heartbleed bug the website believes it is in the best interest of the consumer to change their passwords anyway. The website says they are patching the flaw and re-installing the encryption keys to provide the most secure environment possible.
Healthcare.gov is currently undergoing complete security testing every quarter. The federal government only requires such testing every three years. This testing will continue for the next two to three years.
Breaking It Down
You shuld not be surprised by this development. As matter of fact you should have changed your passwords to every site that uses one by now. I urge black people to take heed when you see warnings like this especially when it involves the Heartbleed bug. Don’t ignore these things! The Obamacare website is the lightning rod in Washington and there are plenty of people who want to see it fail. This is another arrow in their quiver. Why else is the site undergoing quarterly testing. I guarantee some hacker somewhere is trying to bring it down.
Finally, lets talk about passwords. Your passwords should be a passphrase. I warn people all the time that passwords are highly ineffective unless you make it as complicated as possible. So when I say passphrase I ‘m saying think of a phrase using no less than 12 characters. Make it something that makes no sense at all and can’t be related to you. Like friedgreentomatoesaresexy. Then dress it up so it looks like this Fr!Edgr33ntOm@tOe5rSxY. Trust me it seems hard but it is not if you practice and you will be a lot safer online.