Local News: Putnam County Sheriff’s Office Returns With New Facebook Page (11/22/21)


Courtesy of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office

It has taken years to build a customer base of over 20,000, and who knows how long it may take to rebuild it.

However, after an infuriating multi-day break, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office was back with a new Facebook page as early as Sunday afternoon.

A hacker had taken over the old page last week, changing the name, profile and cover photos, and the type of content posted on the page.

On Sunday, however, the ministry was back with its first post on the new page at www.facebook.com/PCSOSheriff.

?? A new day, a new page, ??? the position opened. ?? Hope we can get back to normal. ??

What ?? normal ?? will look like leftovers to see, as the old page had over 20,000 subscribers. In addition, the positions of Cpl. Scott Ducker, the department’s public information officer, has not only attracted local attention, but has at times attracted the interest of state or, on occasion, national news sources, in part because Ducker’s engaging sense of humor.

Either way, the page got off to a good start on Monday afternoon, going from zero to 2,000 subscribers in just 24 hours.

Ducker did his best to go through official Facebook channels to retrieve the lost page, but eventually gave up, finding the tech giant not too useful.

?? We tried to retrieve the old page, but FB did NOTHING to help us retrieve it, ?? the post read. ?? It’s almost as if some social media platforms aren’t very supportive of law enforcement.

The post encourages followers to like the new page and unsubscribe from the old page, as well as follow the new PCSO Twitter page at www.twitter.com/PutCoSheriff.

Before signing the opening post, Ducker also uses it as an opportunity to educate the public on how to avoid similar issues on social media.

He notes that he had two-factor authentication with a complex password, but the determined hacker still gained access.

?? Some changes have been made to this page to help increase security, hope this helps, ?? Ducker wrote. My point is, be extremely careful what information you put on your social media account. Remember that in the end, this is not YOUR page. It is the property of Facebook. We’ve seen firsthand how receptive they are to helping out when you’re locked out and someone else is in full control.


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