The Facebook account of the regional office of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) was the latest victim in the string of hacked government social media accounts.
On July 23, PSA-Misamis Oriental advised the public that the Facebook page of the government agency’s Region 7 office has been hacked since last February 22.
“We would like to inform the public that this account Philippine Statistics Authority-Region 7 was hacked on 22 February 2023. PSA 7 do not have access to this account,” the post read.
“They already reported this concern to Meta in February. Please report this account and unfollow it. The official Facebook page of PSA Region 7 is the Philippine Statistics Authority – Central Visayas. Thank you!” it added.
The new Facebook page of PSA’s Central Visayas office can be accessed through this link: Philippine Statistics Authority-Central Visayas Region.
In a separate post, the PSA-Central Visayas (Region 7) also advised the public that official updates are only posted on its new official Facebook account.
“To continually provide you with updates on statistics, civil registration, Philippine Identification System and other activities of Philippine Statistics Authority – Central Visayas, please like and follow our NEW Official Facebook Page,” it said.
The old Facebook account with a blue “authentic” checkmark is now renamed as “Real Philippinest.”
It also became a personal blog with photos of an Instagram influencer bearing the handle @saampysca.
The hacking incident also seemed to go unnoticed up until recently. Some Filipinos who noticed the latest Facebook posts talked about it on Facebook and Twitter.
nakalimutan nung admin mag change acc di mo dump acc yan te 🤣 pic.twitter.com/xoHytA88tL
— l*x 🥢💤 (@f4ggotism) July 23, 2023
Social media pages of government departments and bodies seemed to be the new targets of cybercriminals this year.
The agencies that were affected are the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino, the Department of Health, the Department of Science and Technology, and the Department of Education’s (DepEd) Cotabato Division.
READ: Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino blames malware for lewd Facebook Story
As of writing, the cause of the spate of cyberattacks on state-run government pages has not yet been identified.