(6 June 2018) Hong Kong’s Leisure & Cultural Services Department has formed a task force led by an assistant director to review security measures on the management of library users’ personal data.
It made the announcement today after Police arrested a former outsourced library employee believed to have obtained the account information of some library users without authorisation.
The staff member was responsible for handling returned books at Tseung Kwan O Public Library.
Hong Kong Public Libraries conducted an investigation after receiving enquiries from library users who could not access to their online accounts.
It found the users’ accounts may have been improperly accessed, and 129 of the accounts involved loss of a library card or change of account password, resulting in the account holders’ inability to use the online service.
The department has reported the case to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data and contacted the 86 affected users.
The department apologised to the users and vowed to co-operate with the Police investigation.
It also promised to enhance the monitoring mechanism on outsourced service contractors.
The department reminded users to change their online account passwords as soon as possible.
The news is here.
