Posting of fake data may help
Once the personal details of people who had made complaints against police was leaked on to the internet, there was little that could be done to remedy the situation, said the lawmaker representing the information technology sector.
Legislator Sin Chung-kai said the IT trade had suggested that authorities post fake and harmless personal data on the Web to confuse those looking for the genuine file.
'I am still studying whether this is legal, but from an efficiency point of view it may prove useful,' he said.
The lawmaker added that given the global nature of the internet, even if a Hong Kong court issued an injunction against circulating leaked information, it would have no effect on foreign servers and internet users.
In order to prevent similar incidents happening again, Mr Sin said the government should encourage both public and private organisations to adopt international standards on information security, such as Cobit, ISO17799 and ISO27001.
'If the organisations follow the protocols set out in these standards, the risk of leaking sensitive information would be reduced.'
He also said government should allocate more resources than the present $1.3 million it budgeted for information security, and toughen security audits on government computer systems.Benjamin Wong
