CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Philippine Statistics Authority in Central Visayas (PSA-7) assures that they are addressing the regional agency’s hacked Facebook account.
In their hacked FB account (Philippine Statistics Authority – Region 7), different profile pictures, mostly featuring women, were posted, and this caught the attention of the netizens especially in the third week of July.
With this, PSA-7 released a public advisory.
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PSA-7 FB account hacked since Feb
On July 23, 2023, PSA-7 said in their new Facebook page, that their FB account got hacked since February 22, 2023.
“PSA 7 do not have access with this account. We have already reported this concern to meta since February,” they said in the attached photo of the hacked account.
In a phone interview with PSA-7 Director Ariel Florendo, he told CDN Digital that the incident is being addressed.
“Soon, we will give another press release for everyone para maging official. Nag coordinate din [kami] sa [PSA] Manila, and it has been addressed. But we’re slowly doing this and carefully doing this because na hack man siya (Facebook page) but everything is under control. Na address na siya properly and soon we will have again the Facebook (to) be accessible and to be used by everyone,” Florendo said.
(Soon, we will give another press release for everyone so that this will be official. We have also coordinated with [PSA] Manila, and it has been addressed. But we’re slowly doing this and carefully doing this because this has been hacked (Facebook page), but everything is under control. We have addressed it properly, and soon, we will have again the Facebook (to) be accessible and to be used by everyone.)
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DICT, Cybercrime Investigation Center
He said that they also coordinated with Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Cybercrime Investigation [and Coordinating] Center.
“We also connected ourselves with the META which is in control with Facebook,” the regional director said.
He said that they also coordinated with the other [concerned] agencies, and of course, the central office of PSA.
When asked what would be the official Facebook page that PSA-7 would use the moment everything would be fixed, Florendo said that the public would just wait for the press release.
“This might be a temporary thing lang. We’re still trying to look na dili na gyud siya ma happen in the future. So, any development, we’ll inform you,” Florendo said.
(This might just be a temporary thing. We’re still trying to look that this will not happen again in the future. So, any development, we’ll inform you.)
As of writing, the active Facebook page of PSA-7 has over 1,000 followers and over 700 likes.
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