Philippine State Lottery PCSO Says Its Facebook Page Got Hacked

The Facebook page has been temporarily deactivated as part of investigations.

Philippine authorities are investigating the alleged hacking of the Facebook page of the state-run lottery agency Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) after several photos depicting nudity were posted.

Alexander Ramos, executive director of the Department of Information and Communication Technology - Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (DICT-CICC), confirmed the posting of such material on Tuesday (December 5).

"There are nudities that have been posted on [PCSO's] Facebook page," he told CNN's Manila bureau. "So it's probably a form of attack that we know if we can address it yet, but we sent people already to ensure the investigation would be properly conducted."

Philippine State Lottery PCSO Says Its Facebook Page Got Hacked
JAY DIRECTO/AFP via Getty Images

PCSO Shuts Down Its Facebook Page

In a public announcement on its website on Tuesday, the PCSO said it was temporarily deactivating its Facebook page while probing the inappropriate activities.

"This is to inform the public that the official Facebook page of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has been voluntarily and temporarily deactivated," the advisory read. "PCSO has discovered inappropriate activities that require scrutiny and further investigation."

"The PCSO will continue to provide correct and accurate information about our games and charitable activities on our PCSO Games Online Hub Facebook page."

In a separate statement, DICT Assistant Secretary Aboy Paraiso said the agency was continually coordinating with PCSO about the matter.

As of writing, there was no reported comment or attempted request for such from Facebook's parent company Meta.

Tags
Philippines, Manila, Facebook
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