The Independent Singapore's publisher suffers major hack of his Facebook account

Singapore -- The publisher of The Independent Singapore, Mr Kumaran Pillai, had his Facebook account compromised after a major hack on Tuesday (Jan 26). [caption id="attachment_259720" align="aligncenter" width="638"] Photo: Kumaran Pillai[/caption] From as early as 1.54 am, Mr Pillai was removed as an admin from his own Facebook pages, with the hackers using the account to conduct Facebook transactions and start Facebook Live videos. He said yesterday: “My account was hacked last night and I have been working with the Facebook team to get the account restored. My public profile page has been compromised and I understand that the user has been using the page to conduct Facebook transactions and FB live”. Surprisingly, his account is a page that has been verified by Facebook, yet someone was able to remove him. [caption id="attachment_259719" align="aligncenter" width="1366"] Photo: Kumaran Pillai[/caption] He added that there are other pages managed by him that may have been compromised as well. “I'm working with FB to ascertain the extent of the breach,” he said. [caption id="attachment_259718" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Photo: Kumaran Pillai[/caption] Describing the extent of the hack, Mr Pillai said: “The hacker took over the account, changed the security settings, removed me as admin in my own page.” “Now, I am not able to get in and Facebook is making me jump through the hoops to login into my own account. Credit card details and bank account information may have been compromised,” he added. [caption id="attachment_259721" align="aligncenter" width="739"] Photo: Kumaran Pillai[/caption] [caption id="attachment_259722" align="aligncenter" width="739"] Photo: Kumaran Pillai[/caption] [caption id="attachment_259752" align="aligncenter" width="928"] Shows an audit trail of how the account was hacked, removed current admins and editors. The hackers did a geo restriction on the page so that the owners will not be able to track it.[/caption] According to screengrabs he shared, his public profile photo had been deleted, with hackers using the page to peddle their wares. He said he was in the process of making a police report. In an update on Wednesday (Jan 27), Mr Pillai said he had regained access to his accounts and thanked Facebook for its prompt action in the recovery process. He added that he had asked Facebook for a statement. /TISG