• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The help of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center is being sought to investigate the hacking of the Negros Occidental provincial government Facebook page.
“We want to know who is behind the hacking and the motive,” Charina Magallanes-Tan, head of the Provincial Information Office (PIO), said on Wednesday (Oct. 23).
Photos of scantily-dressed foreign women appeared on the Facebook page of the provincial government on Tuesday.
Access to the hacked Facebook page has been recovered and the page was restored on Wednesday.
Tan said that they have further strengthened the security protocol of the province’s Facebook page, which posts updates on the activities of Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson and the provincial government.
As of this time, the provincial government Facebook page has 183,000 followers.
Tan acknowledged the assistance of Meta Philippines, owner and operator of Facebook in the country, in regaining the access and control of the page
“We were not hopeful to recover the page like what happened to other local government units. But after our complaint, they contacted us within 24 hours and helped us recover the page,” Magallanes-Tan said. “If we can identify the persons behind the hacking, they will face charges for violating the Cybercrime Act”. | GB
