Foreign Actors Suspected To Be Behind Capitol Hill Data Breach

(RightWing.org) – Last week, unknown perpetrators stole personal information from an Obamacare database — including the data of hundreds of House members and staff. So far, nobody knows who is responsible. However, House authorities are putting the blame on “foreign actors.”

At least 17 House members and hundreds of congressional staffers were affected by the #DCHealthLink data breach, a spokesperson for the House Committee on House Administration confirmed. https://t.co/DiFJkhMTkN

— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) March 16, 2023

Last week, House Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor wrote to hundreds of legislators and staffers to tell them there had been a data breach in the DC Health Linkage Exchange. The Exchange is an Obamacare insurance exchange used by many people in Congress — so the personal data it contains is obviously something foreign intelligence agencies would like to get their hands on. Now, according to House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, “nefarious international actors” might have done exactly that.

Szpindor warned those potentially affected by the breach that “Personal Identifiable Information” and bank account details had been compromised and said the FBI was investigating; she hoped to have a list of the people affected by later that day.

The list is believed to include at least 17 US Representatives. She suggested anyone who suspects their data had been seized should consider freezing their credit to protect themselves against cybercrime, but there could be more serious implications. Meanwhile, House officials are trying to get more information from DC Health linkage about exactly what the hackers managed to access.

Steil says there’s “a very detailed forensic audit” going on to find out what happened and who did it, and said that until it’s finished, there are no hard answers. However, he said, foreign actors or criminal gangs could be involved.

Former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Christopher Krebs went further, telling CBS’s “Face the Nation” that a “Russian-linked cyber criminal” could be responsible. If he’s right, Vladimir Putin’s regime could now have personal information on hundreds of people who work in our legislature — and that sort of information is the starting point for a compromise operation.