Data of ’Hundreds’ of Lawmakers, Staff on US Capitol Hill Leaked

By Staff, Agencies

A top US House official said that a “significant data breach” at the health insurance marketplace for Washington, DC, on Tuesday potentially exposed personal identifiable information of hundreds of lawmakers and staff.

In a letter obtained by NBC News, Chief Administrative Officer Catherine L. Szpindor said Wednesday that the US Capitol Police and the FBI had alerted her to a data breach at DC Health Link, the Affordable Care Act online marketplace that administers health care plans for members of Congress and certain Capitol Hill staff.

“Currently, I do not know the size and scope of the breach, but have been informed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] that account information and [personally identifiable information] of hundreds of Member and House staff were stolen,” Szpindor said. “I expect to have access to the list of impacted enrollees later today and will notify you directly if your information was compromised.”

Szpindor added that it did not appear that House lawmakers were “the specific target of the attack” on DC Health Link.

A reporter for The Daily Caller first tweeted Szpindor’s letter.

Out of an “abundance of caution,” Szpindor said, lawmakers may opt to freeze family credit at three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and Transunion.

The data breach has also affected Senate offices, according to an email sent to Senate offices Wednesday afternoon that said the Senate Sergeant at Arms was informed by law enforcement about a data breach.

The notice said that the “data included the full names, date of enrollment, relationship [self, spouse, child], and email address, but no other Personally Identifiable Information [PII].”

A spokesperson for the DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority, which operates DC Health Link, said Wednesday that it had launched an investigation into the breach.