Hong Kong police visit Cathay Pacific HQ to investigate major data breach that hit 9.4 million customers
- Officers from Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau collect evidence from airline’s headquarters in city
- Meanwhile, privacy commissioner offers legal help to any customer wanting to pursue claim for damages
Hong Kong police on Monday visited the headquarters of Cathay Pacific Airways in response to a request by the company to help investigate a data breach that has seen the personal details of 9.4 million customers leaked.
But the officers from the city’s Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau said their task was not an easy one because of the airline’s delay in reporting the incident.
The search for evidence came as Hong Kong’s privacy commissioner took to the airwaves to accuse the airline of failing to cooperate with a probe by his staff into the leak. The commissioner pledged legal help to any Cathay customer wanting to pursue the airline for damages.
After a two-hour investigation at Chek Lap Kok, a police insider said officers had visited the headquarters to study the airline’s servers and computer systems and check on the progress of follow-up action by the firm and its subsidiary Cathay Dragon.
“We need to know the full picture before conducting any forensic examination. We need to understand how their computer systems and servers work. We also ought to get information such as logging details and the last time the system was upgraded,” the source said.