Was it a deliberate attack—or merely a glitch in the system? After causing alarm among netizens over the weekend, the surge of clone and blank accounts on Facebook remains an open case as authorities continue to seek what caused it.

On June 8, the cybercrime division chief of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Victor Lorenzo said that they are currently looking into the probability of the clone surge just being a glitch in the social networking site’s system. Noting Facebook’s safeguards on preventing the deliberate creation of multiple accounts with the same details, Lorenzo said, “Napakahirap magcreate ng accounts ngayon sa Facebook especially pag madami kang kine-create na account under one ID, one cellphone number, one location.”

He also speculated that this possibility may be in line with the US-based social networking site’s system being filled with #BlackLivesMatter online protests against police brutality and racism recently. “Machine lang naman ‘yan eh. Hindi imposible na mangyari na magkaroon ng glitch,” said Lorenzo.

Despite this possibility, NBI will continue to coordinate with Facebook to resolve and investigate the cause behind the rise of clone accounts. He also warned that if the Facebook account copycat cases are found to be done deliberately by someone, they will be filed with criminal charges for identity theft under the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. A punishment of six to twelve years in prison also awaits those found guilty.

NBI is also investigating the incident’s timeline and whether its main targets are truly university students and alumni, who were the first ones to notice and report the cyber issue. Several universities like the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University have already issued statements and advisories to their communities after receiving reports on the matter. However, the cybercrime division chief said that there were also reports of clone accounts from people who aren’t or weren’t students of the universities that lodged their concerns.

Another concern that Lorenzo raised in line with the current cyber issue is the compromise of social media accounts through phishing. Thus, he warned the public about clicking suspicious links, from either photographs or messages sent by hackers, which will make it seem like users were logged out of their accounts. By logging back in, their credentials will be exposed to hackers. Additionally, he reminded netizens to avoid posting online their personal details, IDs and plane tickets with bar codes.

Header Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

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