DC Link Data Breach Exposes Personal Info of Congress Members

DC Health Link is the Affordable Care Act online marketplace that administers health care plans for members of Congress and certain Capitol Hill staffers, as well as others in the Washington area.

On March 6, before the breach was public, a user on a dark web forum popular with criminal hackers claimed to have access to data — including the names, Social Security numbers, contact information and family members, as well as other information — of a handful of DC Health Link users and claimed to offer the full database for sale.

Another user on the site made the files public to anyone with access to the site this week. That database, includes the purported information of more than 65,000 people, including more than 1,000 with job information indicating they work for the House or the Senate. One Senate office, which asked to not be named to protect its’ staffers privacy, confirmed that the personal information of several of its employees in the database was accurate.

DC Health link announced that it could split many of its users into two groups — those whose information was exposed publicly and those whose information was stored in the same manner but whose data doesn’t appear to have been compromised. It wasn’t clear why there was a distinction.

DC Health Link said in a notice it sent to affected users, that it learned of the breach after it was notified March 6 that users’ data “had been exposed on a public forum.”

“We immediately initiated a comprehensive investigation and are working with forensic investigators and law enforcement,” the letter said, warning that the personally identifiable information exposed includes “Your name and name of your dependents enrolled on DC Health Link, Social Security Number, Date of Birth, Gender, Address, Email, and Phone Number. If your DC Health Link coverage is through an employer, then the employer name and information about the employer and work email.”

It said it was offering customers whose data was compromised “three years of free identity and credit monitoring for all three credit bureaus” that they can access immediately.

U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI are investigating.

Personal & Business Data Security is at the very heart of what we are striving to achieve at BLAKFX. We all know that data theft and cyberattacks are a tangible threat to all of our collective well-being. Business and government simply cannot operate nor thrive if the threat of theft or exposure is omnipresent.

The new era of data security is one that requires new solutions. The era of perimeter defenses is over as it is proving impossible to keep hackers from breaching the perimeter and accessing data. Further E2E encryption based on old models of RSA cryptography will be obsolete when quantum computing becomes mainstream.

Helix22 delivers perfect security assurance due to our genius engineering team that has invented a new model for data security that required an innovative look at the problem. The approach we took was to protect the data itself. Almost all other data security products try to build a perimeter or being fanatic on user credentials. However, once the product is breached or a password is stolen, even if it is 2FA or encrypted, your firms data is in the clear.

You see, the Helix22 cryptography is embedded with the data itself through our inventive and patented process of DNA BindingTM. Therefore, even if credentials are stolen the data cannot be exfiltrated. This means that all data is 100% protected regardless of the type of attack. This holds true for customer and user data as well. No theft of user information is possible.

 

              Our Motto

      “In Math We Trust”

D2D encryption

We can make this claim as the tech engineers at BLAKFX invented and patented a genuine device2device (D2D) encryption. We manage data security transmission through the truly brilliant and also patented universal Helix22 key service. The Helix22 encryption originates on your network or device, not just when the app is opened. This means, that when data arrives to our key server, it is already encrypted so all it needs to do is issue another key. Signal and Telegram cannot claim this level of security. This key will then only work with the intended device, which generates a matching key required to open the data. In this protocol, we are truly a “zero-knowledge” server so your communications and transmissions remain completely top secret. Even in the event that BLAKFX were subpoenaed, we can honor the request by just handing over the encrypted content…as that is literally all we have. Helix22 also only use keys just one-time and then destroys them. This way the data security is future forward prefect. Therefore, in our unique device-to-device (D2D) world, there is no opportunity at all for any data leak.

This same protocol just described, can be the same with all your 3rd party vendors and suppliers. It does not matter in the least what platform they are running or what device they are using or even the type of data, it is all 100% protected. We do however, strongly advise that all firms involved be utilizing Helix22 due to the nature of the data content. Helix22 can ensure that whatever data they are generating is protected as well.

Let’s take it a step further. Even if your organization were a victim of an internal attack or a victim of malicious open source downloads, there is no reason for concern. Any data that has been forwarded, downloaded, copied or saved cannot be exfiltrated. Period.  We have the technology industries foremost data packets which are protected with multi-layered, military grade encryption algorithms that have already proven the ability to withstand penetration testing from MI5 and quantum computing attacks.

One final practical genius of DNA BindingTM is in that it is immediately compatible with whichever system or software you are utilizing. Therefore, any organization can forward information to another and then discuss it and there is immediate privacy.

Helix22 is Quantum Immune – Start Your Integration on our Git

The Helix22 data security SDK accomplishes the following:

    • Protects all your firms data at rest, in use and in transit
    • Renders ransomware threats obsolete
    • Eliminates human error
    • Eliminates all malicious or interior attacks
    • Verifies original content i.e. minimizes the threat of impersonation attacks and deep fakes
    • Reduces latency and optimizes 5G networks
    • Installs with 5 lines of code
    • Runs on any platform, network, device and in any programming language
    • Provides perfect future/forward secrecy
    • Delivers “zero-knowledge” encryption
    • Compatible with all cloud, 3rd party and vendor services
    • Enables Internet of Things data security by providing protection at the Edge and has ultra low latency
    • Ensures privacy and security for blockchain and all cryptocurrency transactions
    • Is quantum ready – so there’s no need to upgrade when the time comes
    • Requires no employee training
    • Exceeds all gov’t and banking security standards
    • Meets all international compliance regulations

BLAKFX is Based on Success

Our founders, Robert Statica PhD and Kara Coppa, also founded Wickr, which is used by the US military and has never been hacked since its inception in 2012. The Helix22 data security SDK is several generations enhanced since then. Dr. Statica also delivered the encryption for the world’s most secure phone, Katim.

                                                                                         

Founder – Robert Statica PhD            Founder – Kara Coppa   

 

                               

Co-Founders of Wickr                    KatimTM Ultra Secure Smartphone

 

Finally, the Helix22 encryption is quantum computing ready so no need to redo all your data security methodologies in a couple of years when everything else becomes obsolete.

We like to refer to Helix22 as “22nd Century Data Security.”

The wrold's foremost B2B and B2G data security product.

Helix22 – Zero Risk