Vernon, B.C., photographer Amie Roussel said she feels cheated when she thinks about hackers taking over her business Facebook page late last year.
“I’ve been building it for at least 12 years now,” Roussel said of her Carousel Studio’s brand.
“Having someone else take it and start to steer it in a totally different direction and then start to use it for their own personal enjoyment was really devastating.”
Whoever had control of her business page was using it to post random jokes and viral content.
“It didn’t seem like they had any interest in my business. I don’t believe that they are local in any way,” she said.
“It really seemed like they were trying to get ahold of the account to drive their own interesting posts forward or maybe to propagate a larger network of people who were posting and gaining likes through pages.”
The Vernon business owner says her attempts to get assistance from Facebook to recover the business page didn’t go anywhere.
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By January, Roussel said she realized it was better to rebrand than keep fighting to access the lost page.
“Ultimately, I decided to close the Carousel Studios chapter because the branding was no longer under my control. If people were to go onto Facebook, they would see this brand and this sign and I can’t say that this is mine for sure or that this is the hackers so it was easier to start again,” Roussel said, who is now using the business name Amie Roussel Photography.
However, the experience took a toll.
“I think in terms of a financial loss we are looking at in the thousands of dollars: the cost in lost clientele and work, the cost in changing over new websites and new branding and new signage. It’s measurable. What is not measurable is the stress that went into it,” Roussel said.
The Better Business Bureau suggests companies plan for the possibility of a cyberattack by backing up their data, having two-factor authentication set up, and changing passwords regularly.
Along with tech tips, Roussel also hopes other companies can learn from her experience reinventing her business to move forward.
“It’s never the end if you are ready to keep going,” she said.
After Global News contacted Facebook’s public relations team on Tuesday, the social media company said it was now reviewing the account.
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