The Philippine Coast Guard on Tuesday said the hacking of its Facebook account may have been done using malware. The PCG has reported the breach to Meta, Facebook’s parent company.
PCG spokesperson Rear Admiral Armand Balilo said they are considering the “possibility of an online security breach through malware” after an initial consultation with the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group.
Malware refers to malicious software designed to illegally gain access to a computer system or network to cause harm or demand money, as in the case of ransomware.
Balilo said the Coast Guard Weapons, Communications, Electronics and Information Systems Command is helping conduct backend operations to recover their social media page.
At about 6 p.m. on Monday, the PCG announced that an “unknown entity” had gained access to its official Facebook page.
The Coast Guard Public Affairs Service had likewise monitored two malicious short videos posted on the PCG social media platform.
When the CGPAS tried to delete the videos, Balilo said the service was alerted by a forced switch account notification.
“As of 6:45 p.m., the CGPAS continues to diagnose via the official Facebook account, Tanod Baybayin, as well as the official CGPAS email address, cgpao@coastguard.gov.ph,” he said.
Citing CGPAS’ initial diagnostics, Balilo said the hackers “did not leave digital traces on the official email address and the mobile phone used by the CGPAS to establish a security key as an additional layer of online security protection.”
CGPAS last accessed and posted on the official Facebook page at 10 a.m. on Monday.
Likewise, the PCG revealed it had foiled an attempt by an unknown entity to breach the security of its official X (formerly Twitter) account on 15 February.
Last month, the PCG received an alert from the Department of Information and Communications Technology regarding the monitored hacking of the PCG website.