Hong Kong Ballet reports data breach from ransomware attack, as third well-established city organisation hacked in 2 months
- Renowned cultural institution says it has called in external cybersecurity experts to assess situation while no demands for ransoms have as yet been made
- Data including personal user details and the organisation’s internal information had been viewed by intruders
The Hong Kong Ballet has reported a data breach caused by a ransomware attack on its computer systems, becoming the third well-established organisation in the city to be hacked in two months.
In an official statement released on Monday night, the renowned cultural institution said it had recently discovered its network systems had been infected with ransomware, allowing intruders to illegally access files stored on computers.
Data including personal user details and the organisation’s internal information had been viewed by the intruders, the company said, adding it was still working to determine the full scope of the attack.
The organisation added it was unable to determine the contents of all files illegally accessed due to encryption by the ransomware.
“We take this matter seriously and are diligently working to address the issue promptly and responsibly,” the institution, founded in 1979, said, expressing regret over the matter.
It also added it had not received any ransom demands or threats of data leak so far.
The company said it had immediately launched an internal investigation upon detecting the incident and hired external cybersecurity experts to assess the extent of the breach and implement corrective measures.