( CNN ) -- When is a website crash not a crash ? That question has been on the minds of many since the government official responsible for the beleaguered HealthCare.gov site testified Wednesday before Congress . Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius apologized and took responsibility for what she called `` miserably frustrating '' problems with the site , which launched October 1 . But it was a parenthetical comment that turned heads . `` We were anxious to get the website up and running and functional , which we clearly have failed to do to date , '' Sebelius said . `` Although , I would suggest the website has never crashed . It is functional but at a very slow speed and very low reliability . '' Has n't crashed , really ? Critics of the site 's failures -- as well as of the Affordable Care Act itself -- immediately pounced on her statement . One congresswoman pulled up the Obamacare site on an overhead projector during the hearing , appearing to show that it was n't accessible at the time . ( In fairness , it 's not clear whether that problem was due to the site itself or a problem with host Verizon 's servers that cropped up in the past few days . For what it 's worth , it was opening for us just fine Wednesday afternoon ) . So , while Sebelius owned up to the errors that have plagued the site for the millions trying to use it , she seemed to be suggesting that , since the entire thing has never ground to a complete halt , it has n't `` crashed . '' Tech community , how does that sound ? `` The site was crashing , '' said David Kennedy of online security firm TrustedSec . `` A crash is defined in the basic sense as an application not behaving as anticipated or not being able to handle something due to programming flaws , '' Kennedy added . `` The system does n't work or stops serving because of the issues , '' he said . `` Basically , exactly what happened to the HealthCare.gov website . '' The definition at Internet-centric encyclopedia Webopedia is similarly broad . It defines a crash as `` a serious computer failure . '' `` A computer crash means that the computer itself stops working or that a program aborts unexpectedly , '' the definition continues . Kennedy said that what 's been happening with the health care website is different from slowness caused by heavy traffic , which is not uncommon when sites debut to higher-than-expected popularity . Instead , Kennedy said , the site is delivering error messages and not letting people register , suggesting flaws in its coding . Technicalities aside , the wags of the Internet were having fun with Sebelius ' comment . `` Depends what the meaning of 'crash ' is , '' wrote conservative blogger Keith Koffler . `` Like , was it driving a car and it did n't crash into anything , so the website made it home from soccer practice ? Or , does the website only go to parties to which it has been invited ? '' Twitter , of course , chimed in . `` The Hindenburg did n't crash , '' wrote @ ClarenceWhorley . `` It was just flying on the ground while on fire . '' Michael Hayes , a reporter for BuzzFeed , wrote than Sebelius should do an AMA , the popular question-and-answer sessions on Reddit . `` That , '' replied Business Insider editor Paul Szoldra , `` would crash Reddit . ''
Health secretary says Obamacare site `` has never crashed '' Kathleen Sebelius apologized for `` miserably frustrating '' problems . Score: 6 Some on the Web mocked her comment .