BACOLOD CITY – The provincial government of Negros Occidental announced on Wednesday, Oct. 23, that its official Facebook page has been recovered after it was hacked on Tuesday morning, Oct. 22.
“We are glad to announce that we have recovered and regained full control of the page,” Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said in a statement posted on the provincial government’s Facebook page.
Lacson said they are thankful to Meta for the prompt response and assistance in resolving the issue.
In a media interview, Charina Magallanes-Tan, executive assistant to the governor and public information officer, said that they will seek a separate investigation to identify the person behind the hacking and determine the motive.
“We want to know who and why,” she said, adding that the incident disrupted the provincial government’s public services, particularly for severe tropical storm “Kristine.”
Tan said that Meta immediately probed the incident and was able to return the access of the page to the provincial government’s PIO. “We were satisfied with the response,” she added.
However, Tan said that their query with Meta was only limited to the recovery of the page as the identification of the culprit behind the hacking is a different matter.
Tan said they beefed up their cybersecurity to prevent a similar incident.