Hong Kong fire service reports potential leak of personal data of 5,000 staff, members of public

It is third online security incident concerning government departments revealed in a week

Latest incident occurred on Friday when an outsourced contractor handled data migration procedure, Fire Services Department says

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Personal information of about 5,000 five service staff was at risk of leaks, the department said,. Photo: Jelly Tse

Published: 11:28pm, 6 May 2024Updated: 12:47am, 7 May 2024

Hong Kong’s fire service has reported a potential data leak related to an unauthorised change of access rights to personal information of more than 5,000 residents and staff, the third online security incident concerning government departments revealed in a week.

The Fire Services Department (FSD) said the incident was spotted on Friday and occurred when an outsourced contractor handled a data migration procedure.

“During the process, the access right of the data was found altered without authorisation, posing a potential risk of data leakage,” the department said in a statement on Monday evening.

“There is no evidence that relevant data have been released.”

It offered “sincere apologies” over the incident.

The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer said on Sunday that it had asked all bureaus and departments to review their computer security and report back within a week following two other data incidents that involved the personal details of almost 130,000 people.

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