The national government is, rightly so, the most information-rich organization in America. As a whole, it contains and tracks every American's personal information. Being in the digital age, the majority of this information is stored on electronic databases.
However, the national government is also one of the least cyber secure organizations even close to its scale. Dozens of branches have been hacked, easily giving advanced hackers access to hundreds of American's personal information and allowing them to corrupt and use government sites. As The Statesman reported in its recent article, Healthcare.gov -- which currently serves more than 5 million Americans -- has 20 specific security issues as found by the Government Accountability Office, has been taken down in Vermont because of bugs and security issues, was not properly tested for security before its release, and was hacked this past summer. The site holds users personal information including names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and income.
Several branches and organizations, such as the Government Accountability Office and US National Institute of Standards and Technology, have been alerted to these obvious security cracks. They've responded with security tests and releasing statement suggestions of standard internet security. This response is completely appropriate but the general awareness and lack of concern for cyber security in government is a frightening prospect. The Wall Street Journal reported than many government officials use insecure passwords such as "1234" or "password." A certain level of common sense security should be adopted by all branches of government.
