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The recent spate of privacy disasters has spread from public hospitals to the banking industry as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) admitted on Wednesday an intranet server containing customer information of nearly 160,000 accounts had been missing and probably stolen from a branch in Kwun Tong late last month shortly before the office began interior renovation.
Police is now investigating the case as theft, while the bank is under fire for taking too long to inform the public, the Monetary Authority and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data about the serious loss.
HSBC issued a statement Wednesday night saying the missing server contains such personal data as account numbers, their owners’ names and value of transactions but not customers’ personal identification numbers (PIN) and passwords.
It also said it was contacting the affected customers, as the Monetary Authority urged the leading bank in Hong Kong to take whatever measure necessary to contain the fallout of the disaster and tell the clients all they should know.
The HSBC Yue Man Square Branch in Kwun Tong, Kowloon East began interior renovation on April 28 and expected the project to wrap up by the end of July, but staff members realized on April 26 a computer server containing a huge amount of customer data was gone.
Instead of informing the Monetary Authority immediately about the terrible loss, the bank sent many of its employees to the nearest landfill to look for the missing server and waited till May 2 to let the MA know after early efforts to locate the computer failed.
However, some computer experts working for the government and universities have expressed reservation about the bank's data security claim. Considering the length of time before the customers were told about the mishap, it is possible the security measures have already been compromised by now and the affected customers should change their PIN and password as soon as possible. 春生 資深翻譯員
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