Arthur Li appointment as HKU council chairman discovered hours earlier than intended thanks to technical glitch
Human error, rather than hacking, likely culprit, says IT expert
Officials last night admitted they had bungled the release of news that a controversial former education chief had been given a key job at Hong Kong’s troubled top university – after internet users leaked the story three hours before it was officially announced.
The Government Logistics Department apologised and said it was “highly concerned” over the way the announcement of the appointment of former education minister Arthur Li Kwok-cheung to the position of head of the council of the University of Hong Kong was handled.
In a statement released last night the department said the bungle was due to “issues of systematic procedures and man-made factors”.
The statement added that it would “consult” with the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer to make sure there would be no repeat.
READ MORE: ‘Very poor choice’: Howls of protest as Arthur Li is appointed Hong Kong University’s governing council chairman
“The colleague(s) responsible for drafting the hyperlink ... mistakenly set the date at January 1, 2015, and has/have failed to abide by the instruction to publish the gazetted [item] on December 31, 2015,” a department spokeswoman said.
The department said normal practice was to upload the gazette to the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer a day ahead of publication and prepare a hyperlink.