Marikina City 2nd Rep. Stella Quimbo (PPAB)

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation's (PhilHealth) member database wasn't compromised despite a ransomware attack last week, House members were told on Tuesday, Sept. 26. 

The budget of the government health insurer was among those tackled Tuesday during the ongoing plenary debates on the P5.768-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) or proposed national budget for 2024. 

Committee on Appropriations Senior Vice Chairperson Marikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Quimbo stood as the PhilHealth budget sponsor and fielded questions from colleagues .

"At present PhilHealth would wish to reassure everyone that our personal information are intact. Nothing has been breached at the moment," Quimbo said when asked by 4Ps Party-list Rep. JC Abalos for an update about the cyberattack. 

"In other words, PhilHealth management assures the public that the incident is under control,” noted the lady solon. 

The Sept. 22 cyberattack had been identified as a "Medusa" ransomware. The Medusa ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts files and demands a ransom payment in exchange for the decryption key. 

PhilHealth had over 65 million direct contributors in 2022. 

At any rate, Quimbo told plenary that the insurer's probe on the attack is still ongoing. 

"PhilHealth is coordinating with the DICT (Department of Information and Communication Technology), the National Privacy Commission, the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation), PNP (Philippine National Police), and other government agencies...PhilHealth is still conducting an investigation," she said.