The Samoa Tourism Authority’s (S.T.A.) official Instagram account has been restored after apparently being "hacked" earlier this month. 

But it is unclear as to how control of the account was wrested back from the social media giant owned by Facebook. 

Attempts to get comments from the S.T.A. were not answered on Wednesday.

On 31 March, the S.T.A. became a victim of what it says is an attack by professional computer "hackers", the Samoa Observer can reveal.

The S.T.A.’s page, which has been increasingly used as a promotional tool by the tourism body, suddenly turned dark early this month.

The public was blocked from viewing its posts while the account’s settings were changed to “private” and a post made to the page contained a message suggesting it was being held for ransom: “My account for sale”.

It's unclear as to what action was taken to restore the S.T.A. Instagram.

Earlier this week, S.T.A.’s Chief Executive Officer, Faamatuainu Lenata’i Suifua, told the Samoa Observer that the cyber attack appears to be the work of professionals.

“The incident, which appears to be the work of a professional-hacker, was immediately reported to Facebook after efforts recommended by the social media giant to regain administrative control of the account were fully exhausted,” Fa’amatuainu said.