TAXILA: A Facebook page which belongs to the district monitoring office (Attock) was hacked by anonymous hackers as a result of a cyber-attack and pornographic content was uploaded on it.

Social media users as well as government employees working in various departments of Attock especially teachers were faced with an embarrassing situation when they found inappropriate content on the official page of the office (DMO).

The district monitoring office (DMO) comes under the Directorate General Monitoring and Evaluation Department (Punjab) for monitoring and evaluation of provincial departments for better performance, transparency and governance along with improved service delivery and public benefits.

“I am a female employee of the district monitoring office and visit the page everyday to get departmental updates and activities; I was stunned to see that it was flooded with X-rated material,” said an employee who wished not to be named.

“The monitoring department officials pay surprise visits especially at educational institutions to check attendance under the Punjab Employees, Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act. Some are even suspended or removed from service and it seems that an official serving in the information technology (IT) laboratory of an educational institution might have hacked the page to get revenge if action was taken against him or her,” said an official of the monitoring department.

As the post of the district monitoring officer (DMO) has been vacant for a long time, the lower staff seems to be unable to bring the issue to the higher department officials and authorities concerned.

An official of the Punjab monitoring department Lahore said that a request was sent to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to address the issue and the website was expected to be restored and made available to the public soon.

“The department has assured that no information was leaked out,” the official said, advising the public not to make assumptions or speculations that could cause confusion and disrupt public order. He added that access to the department’s services was not affected by the cyber attack.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2023