ANOTHER government Facebook page has fallen victim to hacking in Cebu City.
This time, the targeted page is the official Facebook page of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD 7), which has around 524,000 followers.
In a text message to SunStar Cebu on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, Leah Quintana, DSWD 7 information officer, said they are already addressing the issue, but she refused to specify their actions as a caution.
Quintana said it is the first time that the agency’s official Facebook page, created in November 2013, has been compromised.
The DSWD 7 managed to post updates on the distribution of family food packs to 152 fire-survivor families in Barangay Basak Pardo before falling victim to hackers on January 17.
The DSWD 7 Facebook page used to promote programs and reach out to its constituents, but it now displays random videos shared by pages like “kreator digital” and “Kashmir Telegraph Network.” The content varies from komodo dragon and goat fights to random videos of fish catching.
This is not the first time that a government page in Cebu City has been hacked.
Last year, the official Facebook page of Cebu City DSWS Facebook account was also hacked when images of lactating women were on the official page.
The official Facebook page of the Philippine Statistics Authority 7 also suffered the same when it lost access to the page last July 2023.
In a separate interview, Joshua Corona, focal person for the Management Information System Services at DICT 7, said activating multi-factor authentication is a crucial measure to safeguard a Facebook page from hacking.
“Of course, dapat g’yud ang katong nag manage ana, gina enable g’yud nila to ang multi-factor authentication sa mga nag admin, including katong parts sa roles sa page like naay editor, authors,” he said.
(Those who manage Facebook pages should ensure that they enable multi-factor authentication for the administrators, including those who have roles on the page such as editors and authors.)
He said most attacks target the page administrator. He advised administrators to exercise discretion and avoid showcasing their administrator role on a specific social media page for an organization.
“Ang weakest link man gud pod sa cybersecurity is kanang users. Dira kasagaran ma-hack ang usa ka page, kinsay nag-manage,” he added.
(The weakest link in cybersecurity is usually the users. Most of the time, it’s the one managing the page who gets hacked.)
Corona also emphasized the importance of having someone dedicated to auditing and monitoring the Facebook page. Regularly updating “strong” passwords contributes to enhanced security.
He also recommended that page administrators fully comply with the privacy checks set by Meta, formerly Facebook. (WBS)
