The official Facebook page of Rep. Jose Francisco (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) has been hacked and now features video clips from “hot movies”.
Earlier the Facebook accounts of the MassKara Festival and Bilis Cadiz, Ugyon Cadiznon of the Cadiz City government in Negros Occidental, had also been hacked and similar video clips were posted.
The profile picture of Benitez on his Facebook page that has 19,000 followers has also been replaced with a photo of a female who appears to be one of the actresses in the “hot movies”.
An advisory from the office of Benitez on Monday, August 21, said “We regret to inform the public that the Official Facebook Page of Third District Representative Congressman Jose Francisco ‘Kiko’ Benitez has been compromised by unauthorized access. We are actively addressing this issue and working to regain control of the page”.
The advisory urged the public to report any suspicious content and to avoid engaging with unauthorized posts.
Facebook has advised its users to secure their accounts with strong passwords and two-factor authentication.
“Pick a strong and unique password. Avoid including your name, phone number, email address or common words. Don’t reuse your Facebook password on other services online, and never share your password with others,” it said.
“To further secure your account, we recommend enabling two-factor authentication, both for yourself and as a requirement for other members of your business. Once you’ve set up this extra layer of protection, we’ll ask you to enter a code or confirm your login attempt each time someone tries accessing your Facebook account from a computer or mobile device we don’t recognize. We also encourage you to sign up to get alerts when someone attempts to log in from a device we don’t recognize,” the Facebook advisory also said.
Facebook also advices its users to watch out for suspicious links and malicious software.
“Keep an eye out for links you don’t recognize, especially if they’re coming from people you don’t know or trust. Be careful not to click on suspicious links, open suspicious files or install malicious apps or browser extensions—even if they appear to come from a friend or a company you know,” it added.
This includes links on Facebook, in private messages and in emails, it said.
“Keep in mind that Facebook will never ask you for your password in an email. You can always confirm whether an email claiming to be from Facebook is authentic by reviewing recent emails we’ve sent in the Security and Login Settings here. If you see a post or message that tries to trick you into sharing personal information, please report it,” it added.*