HACKED. A screen capture of the hacked Philippine Coast Guard Facebook page as of Tuesday (Feb. 27, 2024). The PCG said coordination with Meta is ongoing to recover their access to the page and is suspecting malware to be the cause of the hacking incident. (Screen capture of PCG Facebook page)
MANILA – There are no compromised documents in the hacking of the Philippine Coast Guard’s (PCG) Facebook page, an official of the PCG said Wednesday.
In an interview over Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon, PCG spokesperson Rear Admiral Armando Balilo said the contents of their Facebook page are all public posts and other information already available to the public.
“At ang pinangangambahan lang namin dito ay 'yung mag-post po ng alanganin, malaswa, at misinformation na makikita ng mga nagfa-follow at akala nila PCG ang nag-post (What we’re apprehensive about is when the hacker posts something vulgar or any misinformation that our followers would think is from the PCG),” Balilo said.
To date, he said the Facebook page remains in the hands of the hackers, and coordination with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the United States (US) Embassy is ongoing to retrieve access.
The videos being posted by the hackers, he said, are mostly clips from movies and do not seem to be sending any particular message.
“Sa tingin namin parang ordinary na nangha-hack lang ito at napag-tuunan lang ang Facebook page ng PCG (We believe this is an ordinary hacking incident and the PCG page just happens to be their target),” he said.
He added that there is no evidence yet on the identity of the individuals or groups that hacked the page.
“Hintayin natin 'yung investigation na ginagawa and hopefully ma-pinpoint natin kung sino talaga 'yung gumagawa nito sa PCG (Let’s wait for the investigation to conclude and hopefully we’ll pinpoint whoever did this to the PCG),” he said.
To date, he said the incident is the third hacking attempt made against the PCG following a failed hacking attempt at their website and the successful hacking of their X, formerly Twitter, page that was immediately resolved.
The PCG’s Facebook page was hacked on Monday around 6 p.m. (PNA)
