The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is ready to face the investigations after a data breach occurred in its system on September 22, the agency’s chief Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said on Monday, Oct. 9.
The probe comes after the National Privacy Commission (NPC) announced it would enter the scene to investigate possible negligence in the agency.
According to the state insurer, it will "cooperate fully" with the NPC, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and the Philippine National Police (PNP) on the investigation.
PhilHealth earlier formed a task force that will probe Medusa ransomware that allegedly distributed personal data it obtained from the agency.
In an interview during DZRH’s Huntahan, NPC official Atty. Michael Santos said the public should change their password into stronger ones and check suspicious transactions on their bank accounts.
“For all concerns, pwedeng magtanong kung apektado ba. As soon as we know, inform natin ang mga kababayan natin. Pangalawa, yung password. Dapat nang mag-reset. At dapat hindi basta-basta password, dapat strong password. Tapos tingnan ang bank accounts kung may suspicious transaction,” he reminded the public.
Santos assured that the NPC would do its best to speed up the investigation.
Meanwhile, the NPC official also reminded the public to avoid responding to suspicious messages that are demanding to click a one-time password, adding that they should delete the same messages in their email.
Santos advised individuals who are possibly affected by the data breach to also activate two-factor authentication on their online accounts.
