A WEEK after being shut down due to a hacking incident, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has managed to partially reopen the operations of its online system Friday, September 29, 2023.
In a statement, PhilHealth said it has already resumed the operation of its Corporate Website and Member Portal effective 12 p.m. Friday.
"These public-facing application systems are already up and running and now accessible to the general public through the internet," it said.
It added that the e-Claims system will also be available "within the day."
"PhilHealth has been working round the clock since Friday (last week) to clean up the affected workstations and restore normalcy the soonest," said PhilHealth.
Last week, several systems of the agency were hacked and subjected to Medusa ransomware attacks.
This forced PhilHealth to shut down its entire system upon the advice of the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT).
Hacking probe
As to the ongoing probe into the hacking incident, the state-run health insurer said it continues to work with the DICT, National Privacy Commission (NPC), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and Philippine National Police (PNP).
It said PhilHealth is open to calls for inquiry to get to the bottom of the hacking incident.
"PhilHealth shall rightfully impose disciplinary actions to people, who have been remiss in the performance of their duties, if they are found liable," it said.
It also assured the public that it is taking the necessary measures to prevent a repeat of the hacking incident.
"The entire state health insurance agency takes this incident seriously by seizing the opportunity that this incident brings to further strengthen its information security infrastructure in order to prevent this from happening again," said PhilHealth. (HDT/SunStar Philippines)