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Author: Mandy Nagy

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Mandy Nagy

Mandy Nagy (aka "Liberty Chick") was an investigative writer and researcher. She primarily covered the institutional left, protest movements, hacking and cybercrime, and technology. After suffering a serious stroke in September 2014, Mandy no longer was able to work at Legal Insurrection, but she's always on our minds and in our hearts. For more information, see here.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 07, 2013 5 Comments

We frequently talk about the idea that politics is downstream from culture, and to some extent, that often includes activism as well.  But this is something I hadn't quite yet imagined. Hacktivists depicted in a ballet. From CNET: Hacker collective Anonymous is going to the ballet. Take...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 06, 2013 13 Comments
This is an absolutely fascinating story that appeared today on ABC News (via Nightline) titled Uncovering Dying Daughter Hoax That Lured in Several Celebrities, and will be featured late this evening on Nightline.  It details the story of a woman who deceived many, including several celebrities, into believing that she had a daughter who was dying of an illness.  Also caught up in her hoax were the real families who had lost children, whose online photos the woman used to pass off as being associated with her own "dying daughter." It's a hoax not unlike some you may have heard before, but this was more elaborate than the usual fare, and far more personal.  And what's most surprising about the hoax is the reason behind it - as ABC News puts it, "it was a far cry from a financial scheme." The story emphasizes the dark side of online communication and reminds us that it's not that difficult to fall victim to such deception. Here is an introductory excerpt from the ABC News article:

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 06, 2013 11 Comments
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified before the Senate Finance Committee this morning on the troubled rollout of HealthCare.gov. Not surprisingly, Sebelius was pressed on the President's promise that "if you like your health plan, you can keep it," a promise that's been repeated in various forms numerous times, including on the White House website. Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas addressed the issue with Secretary Sebelius. "We know that lying to Congress is a crime, but unfortunately lying to the American people is not," Cornyn said. "I'd just like to ask you a simple true or false question. Is that statement on the White House website true? Or is it false?" Watch Sebelius' response below. And in another exchange, Cornyn addressed with Sebelius the issue of background checks for Obamacare navigators.  Navigators can assist individuals in exploring coverage options on the Marketplace, "including completing eligibility and enrollment forms." "Isn't it true that there is no federal requirement for navigators to undergo a criminal background check, even though they will receive sensitive personal information from the individuals they help sign up for the Affordable Care Act?" Sebelius calmly responded, "That is true. States could add an additional, um, background checks and other features, but it is not part of the federal requirement." "So a convicted felon could be a navigator and could acquire sensitive personal information from an individual unbeknownst to them," Cornyn pressed.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 05, 2013 16 Comments

Pew Research recently came out with a new report titled "Twitter News Consumers: Young, Mobile and Educated," which focuses in part on the profile of those who consume news on the social media service.  It's an informative study overall, but there was a passing data...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 04, 2013 20 Comments

Since problems first impacted the troubled healthcare.gov website, officials have repeatedly told frustrated consumers that they may turn instead to alternative enrollment options, such as paper and phone applications.  But even those applications must rely on the same portal to determine eligibility, according to ABC...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 03, 2013 12 Comments
Heritage came out with a disturbing report on its blog last night that highlighted another security concern with the Obamacare website, in which a user evaluating his health insurance options was presented with downloadable letters that contained insurance eligibility information about other people. https://twitter.com/Heritage/status/396796928949620737 From The Foundry:
[Justin] Hadley, a North Carolina father, buys his insurance on the individual market. His insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, directed him to HealthCare.gov in a cancellation letter he received in September. After multiple attempts to access the problem-plagued website, Hadley finally made it past the registration page Thursday. That’s when he was greeted with downloadable letters about eligibility — for two people in South Carolina. (Screenshot below.) Marketplace-eligibility-download-heritage The letters, dated October 8, acknowledge receipt of an application to the Health Insurance Marketplace and the eligibility of family members to purchase health coverage. One of the letters was addressed to Thomas Dougall, a lawyer from Elgin, SC.
Both Hadley and Heritage spoke with Dougall about the situation.  Dougall had apparently registered on healthcare.gov in early October but had decided not to sign up for a plan.  He had not seen the aforementioned letter until Hadley had shown it to him. Not surprisingly, Dougall said, “I want my personal information off of that website.” Hadley and Dougall have both contacted various representatives with healthcare.gov and HHS, but neither seems to be making much progress in rectifying the situation.  Both have also reached out to their elected officials, according to Heritage.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 03, 2013 2 Comments
The Extra Life website reportedly fell victim to a denial of service attack on Saturday, according to a post on the charity organization’s Facebook page. Extra Life is associated with the Children’s Miracle Network of Hospitals.  What started out in the Sarcastic Gamer community a few years ago as a modest effort to help cheer up a young girl battling an illness has grown into a network of support that’s since raised several million dollars.  And this year, November 2nd had been scheduled to be a major donation drive by way of the Extra Life gaming marathon to raise money to support Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. The event works much in the way runners and walk-a-thons raise money for charity:  thousands of gamers sign up to play, backed by pledges of support. But access to the gaming marathon on the charity’s website was temporarily interrupted when the site hit some downtime Saturday. https://twitter.com/ExtraLife4Kids/status/396720855881101312 The full post on the Extra Life Facebook page read as follows:

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 02, 2013 21 Comments

The Wall Street Journal has published this report that Aides Debated Obama Health-Care Coverage Promise, revealing that some questioned whether the promise was one that could actually be kept. But apparently, it was important that the President's message not be cluttered. Pesky details. As President Barack Obama...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 02, 2013 7 Comments
Ladar Levison, the founder of encrypted email service Lavabit, abruptly shut down the service in August after pressure from the government to hand over user information.  Levison said at the time that the move was necessary in order to avoid becoming “complicit in crimes against the American people.” Levison had been unable to comment much about the situation because he was legally prohibited from doing so. Since then, more has been made public in recent weeks after some of the documents in the case have been unsealed.  Those alone revealed the lengths to which Levison went to try and get around the government's demands, including fighting them with an ultra-tiny font (as The Verge put it). In a previous interview, Levison briefly elaborated that he had in the past complied with warrants on routine law enforcement requests.  But the circumstances surrounding the incident that finally prompted him to make the drastic decision to shut down his service were different.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 31, 2013 24 Comments
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and various senior officials got an earful in a meeting today from Senate Democrats frustrated over the troubled rollout of Obamacare.  The meeting also included CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner and Jeffrey Zients, who was appointed to oversee HealthCare.gov fixes. While McDonough tried to reassure lawmakers that he's taken charge of things and some Democrats tried to view things positively, there was clearly still concern. From The Hill, 'Agitated' Dems vent on O-Care:
Democratic senators facing reelection in 2014 were some of the most vocal critics. One lawmaker described Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) as visibly “agitated.” Shaheen demanded to know why the rollout of HealthCare.gov had become so riddled with problems. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who has spent more of his career in the private sector than in government, also weighed in forcefully, according to the source. "I am not happy with the website. That is a pretty common thought that we all feel," Warner later told reporters.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 31, 2013 7 Comments

NSA leaker Edward Snowden has a new job.  He's reportedly been hired to help maintain one of Russia's largest websites, according to his lawyer. From ABC News: Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the U.S. government for leaking thousands of secret files, is...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 30, 2013 8 Comments
More is coming to light in recent days and weeks to suggest that concerns about potential security issues with the healthcare.gov website may be justified. In an article today from CNN, it was revealed that lack of testing of healthcare.gov presented a security risk, according to an internal government memo written by IT officials at CMS days before the launch.
An internal government memo obtained by CNN and written just days before the start of open enrollment for Obamacare warned of a "high" security risk because of a lack of testing of the HealthCare.gov website. "Due to system readiness issues, the SCA (security control assessment) was only partly completed," said the internal memo from the U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "This constitutes a risk that must be accepted and mitigated to support the Marketplace Day 1 operations." The memo goes on to explain that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services would create a "dedicated security team" to monitor the risk, conduct weekly scans and, within 60 to 90 days after the website went live, "conduct a full-scale SCA test." The memo did not detail the security concerns. It was written by IT officials at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and was sent to and signed by the agency's director, Marilyn Tavenner, who testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that she thought the website was ready to go when it began its crash-riddled rollout on October 1.
And in an earlier article at CNN Money titled Security hole found in Obamacare website, it was also reported that a cybersecurity expert discovered a security flaw that went unaddressed for more than three weeks after healthcare.gov’s launch.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 30, 2013 38 Comments
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will testify Wednesday morning at 9:00am ET before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  The session, entitled PPACA Implementation Failures: Answers from HHS, is expected to focus on issues with the troubled rollout of healthcare.gov and address questions about why, despite such issues, HHS officials "repeatedly assured the public that implementation was progressing on time and as intended," according to an advance memo on the hearing. The livestream below will be available once the hearing begins.  A secondary video feed will be available at C-SPAN if there are any issues with the other feed. Live streaming video by Ustream CNN reported Tuesday afternoon that the Obama administration was warned only a month before the launch of the federal health care website that were still some significant issues facing the project, according to a list of open risks outlined in a document from CGI, the main contractor on the project. Updates: https://twitter.com/amandacarpenter/status/395543787470340097

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 29, 2013 9 Comments

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois has removed the controversial Facebook post that sparked a firestorm last week after he accused a then unnamed Republican of having said ‘I cannot even stand to look at you’ to the President during a shutdown negotiation meeting.  That...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 29, 2013 23 Comments

Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), will testify Tuesday morning before the House Ways and Means Committee about the administration's implementation of the Affordable Care Act. A livestream of the hearing will be available at C-SPAN when the hearing...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 28, 2013 4 Comments

The account for a link shortening service connected to the Obama support organization Organizing for Action (OfA) was reportedly compromised today.  Shortened links in President Obama's Facebook and Twitter postings were in turn briefly redirecting readers to a video with pro-Syrian regime propaganda.  The pro-Assad...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 28, 2013 7 Comments
A UK man has been charged in connection with hacking into multiple US government computer systems, causing personal data of US military personnel to be compromised and millions of dollars in losses, according to US Attorney Paul Fishman in NJ. From Reuters:
A British man has been arrested in England and charged by the United States and Britain with infiltrating U.S. government computer systems, including those run by the military, to steal confidential data and disrupt operations, authorities said. U.S. prosecutors said the alleged hacker, Lauri Love, infiltrated thousands of computer systems including those of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. space agency NASA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Love, 28, and three unnamed co-conspirators, believed to live in Australia and Sweden, intended their activity to "disrupt the operations and infrastructure of the United States government," according to a U.S. indictment unsealed on Monday. "Such conduct endangers the security of our country and is an affront to those who serve," U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in New Jersey, who announced the charges, said in a statement. Love was charged in Britain with violating the Computer Misuse Act, and charged in the United States with accessing a U.S. government computer without permission and conspiracy, authorities said. Fishman said the hacking took place from October 2012 until this month. He said it compromised personal data of U.S. military personnel, and information on defense budgets, contract bidding, and the demolition and disposal of military facilities, and caused millions of dollars of losses.
The indictment in New Jersey alleges that, once inside the systems, Love and the unnamed co-conspirators also installed “back doors” that would allow them to return at a later time to steal additional confidential information. Additional details from a press release from the US Attorney's office in NJ:
Love and his conspirators planned and executed the attacks in secure online chat forums known as Internet relay chats, or IRC. They communicated in these chats about identifying and locating computer networks vulnerable to cyber attacks and gaining access to and stealing massive amounts of data from those networks. They also discussed the object of the conspiracy, which was to hack into the computer networks of the government victims and steal large quantities of non-public data, including PII [personally identifiable information], to disrupt the operations and infrastructure of the United States government.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 27, 2013 8 Comments
This upcoming week is going to be an interesting one, as more hearings are scheduled on the Hill to address the troubled rollout of the Obamacare website. From the StarTribune:
Republicans said Sunday they intend to press Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the Obama administration's troubled launch of healthcare.gov, the online portal to buy insurance, and concerns about the privacy of information that applicants submit under the new system. The Obama administration will face intense pressure next week to be more forthcoming about how many people have actually succeeded in enrolling for coverage in the new insurance markets. Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner is to testify during a House hearing on Tuesday, followed Wednesday by Sebelius before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The officials will also be grilled on how such crippling technical problems could have gone undetected prior to the website's Oct. 1 launch. "The incompetence in building this website is staggering," said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., the second ranking Republican on the panel and an opponent of the law.
Democratic Senator Jeanee Shaheen of New Hampshire, a supporter of the Affordable Care Act, told Face the Nation on Sunday that “The rollout has been a disaster,” and proposed that the enrollment period be extended beyond the March 31st deadline. (h/t Washington Free Beacon) Indeed, other Senate Democrats have joined Shaheen in support of such a proposal. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has also joined with Republicans in calling for a one-year delay of the individual mandate.
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