THE Makabayan Bloc on Friday sought a congressional inquiry into the cyberattack on state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) that resulted in the leak of personal records of the agency.
The bloc’s members, Reps. France Castro, Arlene Brosas, and Raoul Manuel filed House Resolution 1350 as they voiced concern over the issue.
“PhilHealth released a statement on October 2, 2023 admitting that personal information of its members was compromised. The harvesting and public release of such sensitive personal information certainly endanger the security of affected PhilHealth employees and members, as such unique information could be used to stage a number of crimes such as scams, identity theft, phishing, among others,” the lawmakers said.
In the resolution, the group said PhilHealth “must be compelled to fully explain the extent of the data breach and to put in place stronger security measures following the ransomware attack.”
“The House of Representatives must request concerned agencies to provide a public briefing on the ransomware attack, and on the findings of their respective investigation over the incident,” they added.
The National Privacy Commission (NPC) earlier said PhilHealth notified them of such ransomware attack on September 25, 2023 and has already asked the state health insurance firm to explain the extent of the cyber-attack and data breach.
PhilHealth has over 54 million direct and indirect contributors and has 1,889 accredited hospitals in the country, with a total premium collection of P171 billion from its contributors in 2021 alone.
“Now therefore be it resolved that the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology conduct an investigation, in aid of legislation, on the Medusa ransomware cyber-attack on PhilHealth and on the leak of personal records of PhilHealth employees and members,” the lawmakers said in their resolution.
