I was going to write a blog entry about an entirely different topic, then clicked one link, then another, then another, and somehow ended up in the innards of Regtap, a strange website set up by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The documents on the server are on the World Wide Web. Anyone can post a clickable link to any of the documents. You could click on a link and see the document, without putting in a password.
Any hacker who knows how to find, or create, a search engine that ignores non-search-engines tags can search the site.
But managers protect the front door with an ordinary, automated registration process, and they use no-robot tags to keep classy search engines out.
So, in other words: You might have a hard time looking at the documents on Regtap, if you were too lazy to set up an account. Ordinary hackers might ignore the site, just because they might not be aware of it. Any hackers who really want to spend their days reading about Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) agent policies and procedures can read webinar slidedecks to their hearts’ content.
But, on one such slidedeck, CMS officials have included a slide that states the following: “Please be advised that the intended audience for this call is medical and dental issuers operating within the [federal exchange system]-SHOP. This is not an open press call. Members of the press or a media outlet should disconnect the call at this time and contact the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Press Office for further information.”