Capitol asks DICT to probe hacking of FB page

The provincial government of Negros Occidental is asking the assistance of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center of the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) to investigate the hacking of its official Facebook page on Tuesday, Czarina Magallanes-Tan, executive assistant of the governor and acting public information officer, said on Wednesday.

“We want to know who is behind the hacking and the motive,” Tan pointed out.

She added that they have strengthened the security protocols of the official Facebook page.

The “Provincial Government of Negros Occidental” page, which posts updates on the activities of Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson and the provincial government, has 183,000 followers.

Tan also said that the process to regain control of the page was not easy and a long process.

“We had sleepless nights,” she said.

Because of our complaint to Meta we were immediately assisted by the social media company to regain access and control of the page, she said.

We were not hopeful to recover the account like what happened to other local government units.

“But after our complaint, Meta contacted us within 24 hours and helped us recover the page,” Tan said.

In the past, several official pages and official accounts of local government units in Negros Occidental were hacked.

In August last year, hackers also gained unauthorized access to the Facebook page of former Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Jose Francisco Benitez and uploaded videos of “hot movies.”

Two days later, Benitez’s office announced that access to the “Cong. Kiko Benitez” page was “successfully reinstated to administrators” through the efforts of Meta Philippines Representative Office’s Public Policy Team in Manila.

Around the same time last year, the Facebook pages of Bacolod City’s “Masskara Festival,” Cadiz’ “Biliz Cadiz, Ugyon Cadiznon,” and the “Municipality of E.B. Magalona, Negros Occidental” were also hacked.

“We were already considering opening a new Facebook account for the provincial government. Fortunately no important posts were deleted during the period that it was hacked,” Tan said.

If we can identify the persons behind the hacking they will face charges for violating the Cybercrime Act so that it will not happen again as it has affected the functions of the provincial government, she also said.* (Eugene Y. Adiong)