This one has the potential to launch like a rocket.   It depends of whether Trenkle will spill the beans…..     The Chief Information Officer for the Obamacare website, Tony Trenkle, never approved of site security before launch.  Instead, his boss, Marilyn Tavenner, gave the authorization to proceed.   Mr. Trenkle quit yesterday so you can only imagine what the backstory is to this political decision, forward at all costs.
Just guessing –  My hunch is the guy knew what was coming, was sending warnings, told his boss this is “NOT” ready;  our platform is NOT secure etc. and she just told him they had no choice.   These were political decisions. 
CMS Marilyn Tavenner and HHS Kathleen Sebelius

CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner (left) – HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (right)

[CBS NEWS]  Tony Trenkle, the Obamacare official in charge of HealthCare.gov security efforts announced his resignation Wednesday, effective next week.
CBS News has learned that Trenkle, the Chief Information Officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), was originally supposed to sign off on security for the glitch-ridden website before its Oct. 1 launch, but didn’t. Instead, the authorization on September 27 was given by Trenkle’s boss, CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner.
As CBS News reported Monday, security assessments fell behind and the website never had the required top-to-bottom tests.
obamacare website parodyTrenkle and two other CMS officials, including Chief Operating Officer Michelle Snyder, signed an unusual “risk acknowledgement” saying that the agency’s mitigation plan for rigorous monitoring and ongoing tests did “not reduce the (security) risk to the … system itself going into operation on October 1, 2013.”
HealthCare.gov exchanges data through a massive hub that includes the IRS, the Social Security Administration, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, the Defense Department, the Office of Personnel Management and the Peace Corps.
Both Democrats and Republicans have raised security concerns in two days of Senate hearings. Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told Congress she did not know about the special security waiver that her agency head, Tavenner, granted the website.
“I was not aware of this and I did not have these discussions with the White House because I wasn’t aware of them,” Sebelius testified.  (read more)

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