DURBAN - A KwaZulu-Natal provincial government spokesperson has asked for help on an international Facebook group regarding the hacking of the ANC KwaZulu-Natal Facebook page over a month ago.
KZN Health spokesperson Ntokozo Maphisa, on Monday afternoon, posted on the group Facebook Help Center, asking for help after the page was taken over in February.
Maphisa said: “HELP HELP HELP.
The page for my organisation has been taken over by some strange people. Who do we talk to, to get it back or to shut it down because they are abusing it, sending immoral information through it.”
“The name of the page is ANC KwaZulu-Natal.”
“We have tried all the avenues to reach out to Facebook for help. Please assist so that we can get the credentials back or kindly close it down. People are now abusing it on things that it was not created for. Some of the things being shared there are super unethical.”
Since posting, his post has received more than 160 comments.
Maphisa received advice on how he could recover the account, others offered him to contact them so they could help, and few made recommendations.
Some people also shared their experiences after being hacked.
Two weeks ago, ANC KZN spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela said they decided to open a new page because they had been waiting on Facebook to fix their former page and return it to them.
Ntombela said their new page was now @MyANCKZN.
To date, whoever hijacked the page treated the 85 547 followers to viral videos of animals, especially birds and snakes.
Last month, Ntombela had appealed to the public to be circumspect when engaging with the page in its current form and not to interact with it or accede to any pleas that the hijackers of the page might make, including requests for money transfers, as per popular modus operandi that hackers tend to employ.
However, followers have engaged, reacted and even shared the videos posted on the page.
Some commenting on some of the posts were asking and stating that the page was still hacked.
Ntombela also said they were working around the clock to rectify the security breach. The ANC in KZN will provide an update on the matter in due course.
When the Daily News visited the page when it was first hacked, it found that the last post which appeared authentic was on February 15, when the ANC provincial chairperson, Sihle Zikalala, in his capacity as KZN premier, alongside legislature speaker, Nontembeko Boyce, concluded a two-day Zulu royal family visit.
On February 21, a post was made on the page ANC KZN was live for more than seven hours. It was captioned “dsfdsfsdf”. That post has since been deleted.
Then, the ANC in KZN said the hackers seemed to have gained access to the page’s security settings and removed all admin personnel who were members of the ANC’s Department of Information and Publicity.
The ANC said it understood that the hackers were also attempting to report the page to Facebook to get it taken down.
Daily News