Obamacare Is a Hacker’s Wet Dream, John McAfee Says [Video]
Commenting on the Obamacare online health exchanges or marketplaces, antivirus pioneer John McAfee is warning of rampant identify theft in the sign-up process for Affordable Care Act insurance.
The eccentric software mogul even called it a “hacker’s wet dream.”
Technical glitches have already hampered the legitimate exchanges since they went live on Tuesday.
McAfee primarily expressed concerned about fake Obamacare health exchange websites that look legitimate and can fool someone into coughing up personal information such as a Social Security number of sensitive health information.
State attorney generals, other elected officials, and various experts have previously sounded the alarm on the possibility of Obamacare-related identity theft.
Said McAfee, the founder of the antivirus software company that bears his name, to FNC’s Neal Cavuto: “Well, here’s the problem — it’s not something software can solve. I mean, what idiot put this system out there and did not create a central depository? There should be one website, run by the government, you go to that website and then you can click on all of the agencies. This is insane. So, I will predict that the loss of income for the millions of Americans who are going to lose their identities — I mean, you can imagine some retired lady in Utah, who has $75,000 dollars in the bank, saving her whole life, having it wiped out in one day because she signed up for Obamacare. And believe me, this is going to happen millions of times. This is a hacker’s wet dream. I cannot believe that they did this.”
He also expressed concern about the government itself gaining access to everyone’s medical records.
An official with McAfee’s former company said on Tuesday that hackers trying to take advantage of the Obamacare rollout are likely to launch phishing attacks to steal personal information.
Last weekend, McAfee disclosed that he is developing a new device called D-Central (or Decentral) that will allegedly block NSA surveillance. He made this announcement at the C2SV Technology Conference + Music Festival in San Jose, Calif.
