Hong Kong police investigate after TVB’s news app sends out unauthorised push notifications
- Subscribers received 23 push notifications within 21 minutes in early hours of Tuesday, including messages such as ‘Patriots rule Hong Kong’ and ‘yooooooo’
- Source says officers are investigating whether mobile app was hacked
Police have launched a criminal investigation after more than 20 unauthorised push notifications were sent out via the mobile app of Hong Kong’s biggest free-to-air broadcaster.
“Patriots rule Hong Kong”, “Lee Ka Chiu meets the press”, “hihi”, “test” and “yooooooo” were the contents of some of the 23 notifications, while others were written in simplified Chinese characters.
“TVB has carried out multifaceted investigations and has immediately strengthened system monitoring to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents,” the company said in a statement.
The broadcaster’s information technology department filed a report to police.
On Tuesday afternoon, officers from the force’s cyber security and technology crime bureau went to the company’s offices in Tseung Kwan O’s TVB City to gather evidence.