Hong Kong government weighs in on Cathay Pacific data breach, urging airline to cooperate with privacy watchdog in investigation
- Authorities express serious concern over data leak affecting 9.4 million passengers
- Victims sceptical over providing more data to third-party ID monitoring service roped in by airline
The government issued a statement on Friday expressing serious concern as affected passengers also questioned whether remedial measures taken by the city’s flag carrier were sufficient, with some worrying there would be further risk of data breach.
The airline has roped in third-party information service company Experian to provide free ID monitoring services for those affected, but this meant customers’ data would be made available to the vendor.
On Thursday, 9.4 million passengers started receiving notification emails from Cathay Pacific about the breach. It was revealed that personal details, such as names, nationalities, and travel document numbers, had been illegally accessed in March.
The airline came under fire from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, for not disclosing the problem until more than half a year later. Cathay apologised for the leak on Thursday.