Senior Obama administration officials are asking people who have accounts on the enrollment website for the health care law are being told to change their passwords as a precaution due to the Heartbleed Internet security flaw, according to the Associated Press.
A message posted on the health care website Saturday reads: "While there's no indication that any personal information has ever been at risk, we have taken steps to address Heartbleed issues and reset consumers' passwords out of an abundance of caution."
Senior administration officials said there is no indication that the HealthCare.gov site has been compromised and the action is being taken out of an abundance of caution, the AP reported.
Officials said the government's Heartbleed review is ongoing and users of other websites may also be told to change their passwords in the coming days, including those with accounts on the popular WhiteHouse.gov petitions page, according to the AP. Major Internet services have been working to insulate themselves against the problem and are also recommending that users change their website passwords.
Websites with heavy traffic and the most sensitive user information were being prioritized, according to officials, the AP reported.
The full extent of the damage caused by the Heartbleed is still unknown because the security hole exists on a vast number of the Internet's Web servers and went undetected for more than two years, according to the AP.
The White House has said the federal government was not aware of the Heartbleed vulnerability until it was made public in a private sector cybersecurity report earlier this month and reported that the Homeland Security Department has been leading the review of the government's potential vulnerabilities, the AP reported.
"We will continue to focus on this issue until government agencies have mitigated the vulnerability in their systems," Phyllis Schneck, DHS deputy under secretary for cybersecurity and communications, wrote in a blog post on the agenda website, according to the AP. "And we will continue to adapt our response if we learn about additional issues created by the vulnerability."
