UPDATE (3:33 p.m.): Kern County Public Health officials say the agency is now back in control of its Instagram account.
Public Information Officer Michelle Corson said Instagram reset the account allowing the department to access it and restore it to normal.
"It appears we're back and in control again," Corson said. "We apologize to everyone for any concern this may have caused."
The display name has been restored as well.
Corson said it appears most, if not all, of whatever the hackers did with the account has been removed, including private messages.
Original Story:
Kern County Public Health says the Instagram account associated with the department has been hacked.
Officials confirmed the hack to 23ABC News. Officials say the hack happened Monday night and that they are now locked out of the account and the display name on the account has been changed.
The department advises anyone who followed the account before the hack to ignore any messages from the account. Officials are currently working internally and with Instagram to recover the account.
Alert: Our Public Health Services #Instagram has been hacked. Private messages have been sent to our valued followers that are not from us. Please disregard as we work to resolve this. Thank you.
— Kern Public Health (@KCPublicHealth) June 4, 2019
