By Junex Doronio
AS MILLIONS OF PHILHEATH (Philippine Health Insurance Corporation) members were affected by the data breach in the system of the state insurer, this time the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) gave a confusing statement, saying that it was the Confucius group — not Medusa — that uploaded a copy of over 600 gigabytes of files.
The copy was reportedly uploaded to a website and a Telegram channel after 4 p.m. on October 5, two days after the deadline for a payment of about $300,000 or approximately P17 million, ransom expired.
DICT Secretary Ivan Uy said the hackers may sell the leaked information to scammers and phishers considering that the perpetrators were not able to get the money they asked for.
“They will try to monetize the information by selling to scammers, to phishers para gamitin ‘yung data nila (to use their data),” he said.
On the other hand, DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Dy said their analysis showed that there were no remnants of the Medusa malware in the members’ database.
Uy further said that investigators are still trying to identify if the hackers are Filipinos or foreigners.
“Sa tingin ko naman ‘yung local hindi sila maglalakas loob dahil mahahabol natin sila. Nasa loob ng ating jurisdiction,” he quipped.
Earlier, a video of the leaked information showed photos, bank cards, and transaction receipts of the victims, among others.
The DICT said that although the transaction data of some PhilHealth members were leaked but it assured the members’ database was not affected by the cyberattack. (ai/mnm)
