Hong Kong Consumer Council falls victim to hackers just week after tech minster called for organisat

Hong Kong Consumer Council falls victim to hackers just week after tech minster called for organisations to review internet security

Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has become the latest local institution to fall victim to hackers, as privacy authorities revealed an investigation into a leak of personal data has been launched following a report.

A spokesman with the Privacy Commissioner’s Office on Thursday said it was checking data breaches reported by the Consumer Council and urged the watchdog to notify affected parties as soon as possible.

The council, an independent statutory body, said on its website it had experienced a “system disruption” on Wednesday morning, which had affected its hotlines and online price watch services.

Management would meet the press on Friday morning over the data leak, a spokeswoman said, while declining to respond to the Post’s queries on the extent of the breach.

Last week, the Cyberport tech hub apologised for a data theft in August that led to sensitive staff information being put up for sale on the dark web, a hidden collective of websites only accessible by a specialised web browser.

Data stolen from Hong Kong Cyberport includes staff details, credit card records

Cyberport only revealed the data loss two weeks ago when staff alerted police, leading to widespread accusations that it had mismanaged its response to the attack and questions about the adequacy of its internet security defences.

Information minister Sun Dong urged its management and government departments to tighten security measures to prevent a repeat of the crime.

Hong Kong’s Cyberport apologises over data theft, vows to improve security

He instructed all government departments and public organisations through the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer to “learn a lesson from the Cyberport incident” and immediately review existing security measures.

According to the city’s privacy watchdog, more than 400GB of the hub’s data was exposed.

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