Hong Kong police raid office of poll organisers involved in Saturday’s opposition primary, over suspected data leak from 2013 project
- Force warns of suspected data leak concerning residents and officers, tied to 2013 project conducted by founder of Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute
- Opposition member slams police action as bid to ‘suppress’ voting over the weekend
Hong Kong police on Friday raided the office of poll organisers involved in the opposition’s primary election a day before the event, aiming to remove computers over a recently alleged data leak from a project seven years ago.
A spokesman from the force said officers from the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau searched an office in Wong Chuk Hang on Friday afternoon after receiving reports about a suspected data leak concerning city residents, including police, that may be linked to criminal hacking. No arrests were made.
Chung Kim-wah, deputy chief executive officer of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI), told the Post at 8.30pm that he learned from his colleagues about the police raid.
We applied for a court warrant which was granted today, and therefore we took action and went to the office to investigate. It has nothing to do with the so-called election
“Police and my colleagues are still negotiating as to how many computers will be taken away,” Chung said. “They were told it was because of a data leak from a survey commissioned by the force back in 2013.”
As of 10.15pm, police were still at the office.
Chung said he would not speculate on the timing of the police operation, but added: “What a coincidence that police took action tonight.”
Au Nok-hin, a co-organiser of the primary, said the police move was to “suppress” the weekend voting and cast a “deterrent effect” on organisers and supporters.
