Personal Data Privacy – Hotel Guests and Shoppers – The Perils of Database Hacking

A major hotel group in Hong Kong suffered a cyber attack exposing the booking details of more than 1.2 million guests.

The hotel group management reported this to the Personal Data Privacy Commissioner’s Office and the Commissioner has launched an investigation.

In a second mass hacking attack one of Hong Kong’s largest online shopping platforms suffered a security breach resulting in the unauthorised access of customer information such as delivery addresses, recipient names and contact numbers.  The personal data/confidential information of 4.38 million registered customers was accessed but according to the group it was only a small portion that was actually accessed but certainly there is a possibility that names of account holders, encrypted and masked login passwords, email addresses, recipient’s names, delivery addresses and contact numbers for orders placed between December 2014 and September 2018 might have been successfully revealed.

The Personal Data Privacy Commissioner has confirmed that this case is being followed up and further news is awaited.  It certainly seems that such illegal database hacking activity is on the increase and both the Personal Data Privacy Commissioner and the police are duly informed and aware of the necessary action to be taken.