Negros Occidental recovers control of official Facebook page

BACOLOD CITY - Negros Occidental's provincial government is strengthening the security protocol in its social media assets after recovering access to its official Facebook page on Wednesday, a day after it was hacked. Charina Magallanes-Tan, head of the Public Information Office, said in an interview that losing access to the 'Provincial Government of Negros Occidental' page was quite a scare and that she is glad they were able to regain control of it after sending a request to Meta, the owner and operator of Facebook. 'Meta responded to our request and restored access to the PIO. We will change the entire security protocol of the page. After this scare, it's just good, and we're fortunate that we got the page back,' she added. She said they have yet to know the identity of the hacker since another unit of Meta deals with the investigation. Magallanes-Tan said they have also filed a complaint with the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center to investigate the incident. On Tuesday morning, the 'Provincial Government of Negros Occidental' Facebook page was compromised with unauthorized access and showed photos of half-naked women on its stories. The page, which posts updates on the activities of Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson and the province, has 183,000 followers. 'Our Facebook page is very important, especially now that there is a typhoon. We regularly post updates on it. The hacking really caused disruption in public service,' Magallanes-Tan said. A similar hacking incident was also experienced by the official Facebook page of former Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Jose Francisco Benitez last year, and the administrators were able to regain access to the page after two days. Source: Philippines News Agency