THE official Twitter account of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) was hacked on Sunday midnight, prompting the agency to issue an advisory on the attack while raising serious concerns.
“We regret to inform the public that Civil Defense PH Twitter account has been hacked. This is the reason why unusual tweets referring to matters not related to Philippines’s disaster risk reduction and management [DRRM] system had been appearing today,” the OCD said in a statement.
The unusual tweets the agency referred to on its hacked account were the messages about bitcoin and cryptocurrency, which were posted in the Twitter accounts of billionaire businessman Elon Musk and his company SpaceX.
Last month, the agency’s short messaging system for disaster alert on mobile phones was also illegally used or attacked after it sent a message about the filing of candidacy for president of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
While the incident was brief, the latest attack has lagged for hours. The OCD said its staff were still working to restore its account as of Sunday afternoon.
“Our information technology specialists are already working to get our account running back to normal at the soonest possible time,” it said.
Still, the OCD said the hacking will not affect its usual information dissemination drive to promote public safety and preparedness against hazards and disasters.
The attack on the OCD’s official twitter account happened three days after it successfully held its online nationwide simultaneous earthquake drill.