FOLLOWING the admission of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) of a serious data breach, a minority lawmaker on Tuesday raised concerns on the government’s efforts to solve the ransomware attack as she urged the House of Representatives to conduct its own probe.
“It is alarming that Philhealth only confirmed the leak of personal information of Philhealth contributors weeks after the Medusa ransomware attack on Sept. 22. This should prompt an urgent independent investigation by the House to put concerned agencies to task and to identify the perpetrators of the data breach,” said Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas.
“Yung mga personal information na nakuha ng hackers, pwedeng gamitin para magsagawa pa ng ibang krimen laban sa Philhealth members tulad ng identity theft. That’s why it is baffling for Philhealth to downplay concerns at the onset of the cyber attack,” she added.
According to Philhealth, personal information of members such as name, address, birth date, phone number and Philhealth ID number were stolen by the Medusa ransomware group.
“The implications of this cyber attack might be worse in magnitude, considering the belated admission of Philhealth and the pendency of investigations of concerned agencies such as the National Privacy Commission. Unfortunately, we have yet to hear from Malacanang on this issue,” Rep. Brosas said.
The Gabriela Women’s Party lawmaker said the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology can conduct an urgent motu proprio investigation on the Medusa ransomware group attack during the congressional break.
Rep. Brosas is also asking the National Privacy Commission (NPC) to furnish the Lower House a copy of its findings over the cyber attack
