Reset to Zero: #Obamacare exchanges wipes passwords, incomplete accounts.

There’s a word for this.

Amid all the attention, bugs, and work happening at Healthcare.gov in light of the Affordable Care Act, potential registrants talking to phone support today have been told that all user passwords are being reset to help address the site’s login woes. And the tech supports behind Healthcare.gov will be asking more users to act in the name of fixing the site, too. According to registrants speaking with Ars, individuals whose logins never made it to the site’s database will have to re-register using a different username, as their previously chosen names are now stuck in authentication limbo.

You know the word, too. I won’t repeat it here, because of couth – but you know what I mean, ya, you betcha.

Via

9 thoughts on “Reset to Zero: #Obamacare exchanges wipes passwords, incomplete accounts.”

  1. I’ve made some stupid moves in software development before, but this… this is epic. I’ve seen projects that were universally despised go down in flames with smaller problems than this.

    1. I was thinking Charlie Foxtrot, although I suppose #Fail or #EpicFail could also work.
      .
      This has surpassed normal levels of FUBAR and is entering into the realm of Epic… I would strongly suggest every techie involved demonstrate some Pri,de*.
      .
      Mew
      .
      .
      .
      * Should be a classical reference… ‘s an acronym.
      Prepare
      Resume
      Immediately,
      Department
      Eliminated

  3. Hmm,

    Forgot to salt their hashes? Perhaps running inconsistant versions of a software layer that stored data differently? Running a non ACID database or disabling locks/blocks because it supposedly goes faster?

    I’m really starting to wonder….

    1. Running middleware that does excessive page locking as it attempts to hand login credentials to a different set of servers and then back again, and then hand them back. Poor load balancing and/or losing track of open sessions on the front end. Poor handling of session flushing and garbage collction. Hmm, perhaps if they upgraded the Amiga they’re serving up the web portal on…

  4. You know, there are a lot of IT types who have been out of work that could do a good job with something like this. Just saying…

  5. Somehow I don’t think a master system reset is going to fix the problem. The achitecture is fragged there are numerous code glitches and I haven’t yet seen an explanation for why the info going out of the back end to the insurance companies is getting fragged up. Has anyone heard about the wherefores about that?

  6. [Okay, so never mind the fact that I just posted the link this article elsewhere in the realm of Moe Lane to find out if you had seen it yet.]

    Question: Does this include people who registered via the state-sponsored exchanges or only the federal-sponsored exchange?

    1. I’m pretty sure each state exchange has their own logon servers so they are going to work or not depending upon their own code/design.

      Not that CaliforniaCovered had anything to offer but 404 page errors and ‘Coming Soon’ PDFs.

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