PNP reinforces Filipino Facebook users’ capabilities vs cyberattacks

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police-Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) is alerting Facebook users and subscribers in the Philippines to reinforce their capabilities to counter possible cyberattacks in the wake of recent reports of identity theft and hacking of social networking accounts.

Reports had it that nearly 50 million Facebook accounts were compromised by an attack that gave hackers the ability to take over users’ accounts, the social media giant revealed on Friday.

The breach was discovered by Facebook engineers last Tuesday, the company said, and patched on Thursday. Users whose accounts were affected will be notified by Facebook. Those users will be logged out of their accounts and required to log back in.

PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said the ACG under Chief Supt. Marni Marcos provided tips to avoid being victimized by hackers.

Marcos said the following basic cybercrime prevention tips will protect the public from hackers:

1. Always keep your social media accounts private;

2. Use a unique password in every online account;

3. Initiate a background investigation of a person’s social media account who is not known to you personally before befriending or accepting a friend request. This can be done by knowing how long the account existed, how many friends it has and whether or not it has regular online activities;

4. Protect your computer system against intruders by installing anti-virus program and by activating your firewall; and

5. Remember the phrase, “too good to be true.”

To learn more about the new trends of cybercrime modus operandi and how to avoid the same, the PNP-ACG is always ready to serve the public 24/7 by visiting their website and Facebook page at www.pnpacg.gov.ph and Facebook page: PNP Anti-Cybercrime, Marcos said.