The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) on Sunday, Oct. 8 urged the public to stop the "further dissemination" of the leaked data from the recent ransomware attack.
PhilHealth said the hackers have reportedly publicized the illegally collected data from the working spaces of PhilHealth employees.
The state health insurer also noted that the hackers who published the private data including the employees' details may face up to 20 years of imprisonment.
PhilHealth added that an individual who is found accessing the data will also be punished by the law.
"Any individual or organization found to download, process or share such exfiltrated data will likewise be held accountable for unauthorized processing of personal information and may face criminal charges," PhilHealth said.
Meanwhile, PhilHealth appealed to the public to exercise vigilance against fraud following the hacking incident.
"Let us then heed the advice of authorities to refrain from clicking doubtful links or providing passwords or OTPs," PhilHealth Chief Emmanuel R. Ledesma, Jr. said.
"It is best to ignore suspicious calls, and to delete text or emails instead from unknown and suspicious senders," he added.
PhilHealth also advised the public to change passwords of online accounts, allow multi-factor authentication, and supervise suspicious activities online.
As of Oct. 6, PhilHealth said 100 percent of its public-facing applications were back transacting online, while the application servers catering frontline services are prepared to operate. (Lizst Torres Abello)