Roughly 75,000 people had their data exposed in a HealthCare.gov system hack earlier this month. Those who went through a broker or agent to receive a quote or sign up for the Affordable Care Act were compromised, CNN reported.
According to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the website, all agent and broker accounts that were compromised were "deactivated, and -- out of an abundance of caution -- the Direct Enrollment pathway for agents and brokers was disabled." CMS hopes to have the brokers back up and running within seven days.
This security breach is not supposed to impact next month's open enrollment period.
"I want to make clear to the public that HealthCare.gov and the Marketplace Call Center are still available, and open enrollment will not be negatively impacted," CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in the statement. "We are working to identify the individuals potentially impacted as quickly as possible so that we can notify them and provide resources such as credit protection."
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Healthcare.gov has come under fire since its inception for its vulnerability to cyberattacks, the Wall Street Journal reported. In fact, back in 2015, Health and Human Services' (HHS) inspector general said millions of Americans' personal data was being stored in a system that had significant security flaws.
The issue was first noticed on Thursday. Federal investigators are still currently investigating the breach and its cause.
Currently, 8.7 million people are insured through Healthcare.gov, the Associated Press reported.
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