Safe . From hackers and other criminals on the obamacare website . The ants depends on you talk to. The protections that we have in place have successfully prevented attacks. Health care. Gov is not secure today. And nothing is really changed since the november 19th testimony. In fact, from our november 19th testimony, it its even worse. Gerri that was the varying opinions of one Government Official and one hacker at hearings today on the hill. Saying, totally Different Things. So who is right . We brought in our own experts tonight. With more on this is mark, the chief Technology Office and Kevin Johnson ceo of secure ideas. Kevin, you were involved with analyzing the obamacare website and the report that came out today. Who is right on this score . Safe or not safe . Well, first, let me say thank you for having me on. Its a very simple answer. Were not safe. The site has significant flaws in security that will allow you to steal data and take the users of it. Gerri all right. Mark, you are one of the white hat hackers. You try break things to see if you can. So the real the people putting out the website can fix it. How safe do you think the website is for consumers . I think theres definitely still Security Issues that need to be addressed. I think more to the point is some of the issues that been found kind of simply off the cusp, if you will, really show a bigger lack of security. And i think that the criminals who can go a lot deeper than us in the white house could are going to be able to do a lot more than what has been discovered so far. Gerri mark, your point is interested. Ive heard people say that the problems with the website show that whoever built the thing just really wasnt very sophisticated. What do you say . I think most of the problems that have been found definitely show that, you know, it might be the one time in a lot of different security crews. We have all heard wrong on that. Everything we have seen from the most basic programming and development mistakes any time ive seen that doing any live assessment of the company and plenty of government organizations. Its a bigger indicater of a lot more problems than a lot of security being an after thought as something as rushed. Gerri an after thought. An after thought of something is rushed to market. Kevin, you were involved with the report. Tell us more about what is wrong with the site. What is going on . What should we know about . Theres horrible problems with the site. This is exactly the type of problems we expect to see. When we assess the applications that just havent thought about security at all. They have everything from the ability to steal the users data from the people signing up, to actually using health care. Gov to pivot and attack the users themselves to comprise their home machines. Gerri no not only can your information be stolen but come to your laptop and ipad and create havoc for you. I want to ask both of you ill start with mark. Theresa fryer was the chief Information Security office who said things are going pretty darn well. Why is she doing that when its obviously to professionals in the business its not true. Mark . You know, they probably had they have had some of their own assessments that might have indicated that to them, but, you know, i think one of the things that is lacking is its kind of a closed system. I think if they were to adopt more of what large Successful Companies like facebook and google do, where they were able to reach out and work more with the independent kind of security community, you would find theres a lot of vulnerabilities and simply having one or evvn two or three different Security Companies look at the site is important is not enough. And it needs to be opened up even further. Gerri kevin . I think its correct. The idea is that were going say its fine based on what theyre looking at, but having somebody else do a comprehensive test is critical. I like the idea of even opening it to a boundary program. Similar to gerri wait. A bug boundary tram . What is that . They are way used. As mark was saying, reaching tout the community and working with Security Research and consult assistants to say were going to give you a system you can test. When you find something, well reward you can that. Maybe a tshirt maybe cash. Gerri the idea you give people cash for finding problems and energizes a lot of smart, young people who know how to look for the stuff. Mark, to you, i feel like im people are trying to steal my identity everywhere i turn. Not only is it a problem for federal government websites, but, you know, look, target is having a major breech. Big problems. I feel like im under assault on all fronts. Can this be fixed . Or please dont tell me its the way of the world now. I dont think its the way of the world. I think things get better. I think sadly, though, like so many of our aspects so many things get better through pain. But definitely, you know, the Health Care Website is certainly a trophy not because of the data it hold but what it actually means. So its a large target, and it has, you know, vulnerabilities as many, many other important sites. By no means alone. But at the same time thats not an excuse for having any sort of lax security. Gerri thank you for coming on, mark and kevin. I wish the news were better. I appreciate your help in illuminating this complex topic. Thank you. Thank you. Now we want to bring you the latest development in another hacking story. Neimanmarcus said customers Social Security numbers and birth dates were not stolen in the holiday security breach. They have not said how many customers have been affected. Only it was notified in mid december that suspicious activity was discovered. It followed, as i mentioned, targets announcement of the massive data step. The largest on record for a retailers. Well have the latest on the Ongoing Investigation with the story tomorrow on the willis report. Youll definitely want to see that. And on to a different story, a different kind of problem. Are banks taking advantage of our nations heros . The wall street journal reporting today that banks marketing to the military and families are among the top collectors of fees. Ith more on this retired Sergeant Jesse jane duff who served 20 years on active duty on u. S. Marine corps. And concerned veterans for america. Thank you for coming on the show, jesse. Thank you. I just want to tell folks a little bit about what the the wall street journal found. Its disturbing. The analysis says that Fort Hood National and three other banks that have onbase branches for our military are among the top u. S. Banks in terms of Service Charge income. They calculated this income as a percentage of deposit. Its not the total number. Its a proportionate number, and why is this, and is this fair . Of course its not fair. Another version of red tear tending. Essentially what theyre doing is taking Overdraft Fees and its like a pay done loan. When you look at the 20 withdrawal from an at m that ends up having a 25 fee attached were talking over 3,000 in a fee comparable interest rate. So when you look at a veteran or a military member active duty who is probably making barely 1,000 every two weeks, corral is roughly making 2,000 a month. Going 50 out hole. Were talking 2,000 before taxes. 50 in to the hole literally can cause them to have a finannial problem until the next payday. The banks know they get a regular paycheck every two weeks gerri all right. Lets look at the fee kings. The banks that do it the best. Armed forces bank of california, Fort Hood National bank, i mentioned that bank. Armed forces bank. I think one of the issues here is not even the military. Not even the armed forces are coming out and saying, look, this is excessive. Its appalling in the same article, some of the officials stated they werent aware of the problem. Im thinking how can you not be aware. When i was on active duty they had the bounce check problem. Now were talking a debit card. How are you aware that the soldiers, marine, and airmen are having financial crisis because the banks take them to the negative. The next day comes and theyre barely balancing out. They report they have to get loans to make it to the next payday. Gerri as i understand. Lets talk about how it works. Age lot of people probably dont understand. This has been a national issue. We have federal regulation to sort of reign this in for regular consumers. Clearly now servicemembers are under occur res as occur russ. What are the fees . It happens all the time with a debit card. Its hard to keep track of how much money. If you overdraft. Let say you are out on a saturday morning and making a bunch of stop on the regular shopping trip. You stop at the drugstore and get gas in your car, you go grocery shopping. You overdrafted three times. You get 35 each time. It sinks to the hole further. Its like a spiral down. Exactly. Gerri for a lot of people, i know a lot of our viewers disagree with this. They say you should know exactly what you have in your account. The reality is, its punishing just punishing and free money for the banks. What are they giving you for the fee . At the end of the day, i think merchants should have to deny the money. They should say im sorry, you dont have enough money if your account to cover this. Were, you know, were not putting through whatever it is you want to buy. That should be the way its handled instead of punishing our servicemembers with massive fees. Well, its cavalier for snob say you should know what is your account. Please be sensitive that many are really not living above barely above a poverty line. When you look at the revenue. These are lowincome people. If weve got four banks identified that are on military bases at the top ten, this tells you theyre targettng this population. That is not reasonable. Thats not right. Second of all, the regulations that were put on the credit card that donnt allow you to exattendant purchase, you can tell the bank dont authorize a purchase because i dont want the fee. If i hit my limit. Why cant it be given to the debit card . I think it should be the default situation. You have to ask for the coverage. It doesnt come automatically nap way people wouldnt get in to trouble it would be easy to end it and tend quickly. Its a matter of changing the policy at the bank. Yeah. What is going happen if you are stationed overseas . I was overseas four times. You start having a financial problem with a bank back in the states, now youre in another circular problem. Youre unable to meet your debt. Get this, for all the viewers that dont realize this, many of the creditors had the military people sign waivers they can contact their Commanding Office if they are late on a car payment. Now you have your Commanding Office chasing you down. Meanwhile, youre in the negative 500. This is career ending for people that put their lives on the line. If these banks want to call themselves armed forces or military, or im here for fort hood personnel. You better put those people at your best interest at heart. Dont be putting on the perception youre about the military meanwhile youre e3 Lance Corporal is running around broke, worried about their career because what your bank is charging them. Gerri sergeant, great stuff. Thank you for coming on and talking to us. Tweet me and if you feel the same way. If you dont, we want to hear from you. Its a hotbutton issue. Wow. More to come this hour. Including how you can pick the right hospital to avoid some super high cost of care. Next the government says inflation is practically nonexistent. Why does it feel like everything costs more . I sure feel that. Coming up next. Welcome back. How is everything . Theresothing like being your own boss and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. Fedex one rate. Really kes my life easier. Maybe a promotion is in order. Good news. I got a new title. And a raise . Management couldnt make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. Simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. Gerri gut check. Our prices you pay for things you buy at the Grocery Store and anywhere else. Are they rising or falling . New Government Data show the annual rate of inflation is dropping. The Consumer Price index fell to one and a half percent well below the 2 . All despite rising food and gas prices. Here to weigh in an economist at the university of maryland. Welcome back to the show. You know, im mist fied by these reports. I dont know who writes them or where they get their information. Because it sure seems to me like prices are going up. Well, prices are sure going up. They might not be going up as quickly as they have been in the past. They have been rising. If youre a mother with a 3yearold, 5yearold, and 7yearold. The price of milk, butter, and ground beef is up a lot. Gerri let me give you other examples. Bacon up 9. 6 . Think about that. Impacts all of us. Eggs 5. 8 . Potatoes up 7. 2 . Prices for services. Tax return preparation up 3. 4 . College tuition up 3. 9 . Rent 2. 9 . What about housing . Housing has been on fire. If youre buying a home the prices have gone nowhere but up. There are prices going up. I felt like the government isnt measuring what i buy or Pay Attention to. Well, its an average. The thing is that at lot of the necessities are up, and other things arent. For example, you have to take your kids to the doctor, well doctors have been jacking up the rates in anticipation gerri thats right. In obamacare. You have to pay rent. Rent has been rising rapidly because one of the legacy of the Great Recession we dont have enough apartment space. So many people are looking to live in apartments. And you have consistent example. Milk is necessity as well, for the mother i mentioned. Gerri gas prices up 3. 1 in december and theyre going up again. Were seeing across the board. A lot going on there. Now, of course, the way the Federal Reserve looks at the world, which lets face it is not the way we look at. It i they want to see inflation go up. Inflation going down is not good. They want to see an increase, why in. Well, they have a joint dispute with the universe. Its what happens when you tenured professors living off endowments. The contracts thats right. Most contracts dont accommodate inflation very well. So they have a gradual rate of inflation that papers over business mistake. They dont handle deflation very well. We had prices going down and wages falling a little bit. You have a problem with the mortgages. Well, you know, thats a terrible view of the world. Price stability should be the objective. Make a dollar a year from now worth what it is today then businesses will adjust the way they write contracts. Don ak will mate yourself to a very bad practice. We dont neat creeping inflation, which impoverish the elderly terribly. Gerri i love what youre saying this. What does your crystal ball say about inflation over the next year. What do you see . Going pick up the latter half of next year at the latest. Because of all the money the fed has been printing, its going go up. Energy prices will start rising again. Natural gas, whenever we have a boom. We get a lot of gas. The price goes too low, and then producers adjust. I predict, for example home heating costs will rise next year. I think theres no end to the housing inflation. God help us. What obamacare is doing medical prices. Gerri i agree nap is a sneaky cause that gets in to everybodys wallet. Thank you for coming on, peter. Great to see you. Take care. You take care as well. Later in the show, one of our viewers tells us the story of his struggles with obamacare. A new report shows the cost of having babies it varies widely depending on which hospital you go to. You pay 3,000 or 50,000. So how can you lower the cost . We have an up. [ male announcer ] wt kind of energy is so abundant, it can help provide the power for all th natural gas. More than ever before, americas electricity is generated by it. Exnmobil uses advanced visualization and drillintechnologies to produce natural gas. Powering our lives. While reducing emissions by up to 60 . Energy lives here smoke . Nah, im good. [ male announcer ] celebrate every win with nicoderm cq, the unique patch with time release smartctrol technology that helps prevent e urge to smoke all day long. Help prevent your cravings with nicoderm cq. Of the dusty basement at 06 35th street the old dining tle at 25th and hoffman. And the little room above the strip mall f roble avenue. This magic momt it is the story of where every great idea begins. And of those o believed they had the power to do more. Dell is honored to be part of some of the worldgreat stories. That began much the same w ours did. In a little dorm room 2713. This magic moment gerri coming up. Why it may be easier to find up the sex of your baby rather than the cost to deliver it. Details in 60 seconds. Gerri so exactly how much does a dos have a baby . Well, according to a new study, it can cost you just about anything depending on what hospital you go. A huge cost difference. Tens of thousands of dollars. Here with moms to be can avoid the hospital sticker shop is Health Care Bluebook ceo dr. Jeff. Welcome back to the show, dr. Jeff. We have a full screen on the range of possible costs for a normal birth, no complications. You can pay 32 00. C section 33 00 to 71 ,000. How is it possible that the same procedure, the exact same thing costs so has such different price tags. Its not like people havent been delivering babies for awhile. Yeah, thats right. Unfortunately hospitals can charge anything they want, and weve had insurance system in place for a long time that really insulated patients from asking about costs. So hospitals charges have continued to escalade and get higher and higher. We see the enormous price variations. Now with consumerdistricted health plans patients are starting to taste notice and they are outraged. Melissa its shocking. Its shocking when you look at variations for what isthe huge essentially the same thing. So many people have been doing hundreds of thousand of years, really. So, tell me about this. I had a girlfriend recently who had a baby. She tried to price out at the couple of constitutions. She was told by one hospital they wou