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The official Facebook page of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD-7) has been taken over by hackers.
It was the first time for the account, which has around 524,000 followers, to be compromised since it was created in November 2013, DSWD 7 information officer Leah Quintana said in a text message to SunStar Cebu on Tuesday, January 23.
The DSWD 7 Facebook page still got to post updates on the distribution of food packs to 152 families displaced by a fire in Barangay Basak Pardo before the page was hacked on January 17.
Since it was hacked, the DSWD 7 Facebook page has been displaying random videos on just about everything, from tips on catching eels from a swamp, training ducks to form a heart, to pranking pet birds.
Quintana that they were already addressing the issue but did not provide details as a security precaution.
Last year, the official Facebook page of DSWD Cebu City was also taken over by hackers.
Joshua Corona, focal person for the Management Information System Services at the Department of Information and Communications Technology in Central Visayas said that activating the multi-factor authentication is a crucial measure against getting hacked on Facebook.
He said that those who manage Facebook pages should ensure that they enable multi-factor authentication for the administrators and those with roles in the page, including editors and authors.
Corona said that since most attacks target the page administrator, it is advisable for the latter to exercise discretion and avoid showcasing their administrator role on a specific social media page for an organization.
“The weakest link in cybersecurity is usually the users. Most of the time, it’s the one managing the page who gets hacked,” he said in Cebuano.
He also cited the importance of having someone dedicated to the tasks of auditing and monitoring the Facebook page, and to update passwords regularly with strong passwords to enhance security.
Corona also recommended that page administrators fully comply with the privacy checks set by Meta Platforms for Facebook. – Rappler.com
Wenilyn Sabalo is a writer for SunStar and an Aries Rufo fellow. Her outputs for the program are carried by both SunStar and Rappler.
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