Hong Kong's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department is following up on a possible case of confidential data leakage recently, according to a local media report.
A person reported to the department that a USB thumb drive that stores internal guidance for the Hawker Control Teams of the department and personal information of some hawkers was found on a bus, a Chinese report by local daily Ming Pao said.
Spokesperson of the FEHD was quoted as saying employees are required to report any loss of confidential data such as those stored in USB flash drives, but no employees did so in the past month.
The spokesperson was also quoted as noting that the department has guidance aimed to remind employees to avoid storing confidential and/or sensitive data in USB flash drives and they must have their supervisors' approval when they need to do so.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data has been in touch with FEHD to investigate if loss of personal data is involved in this case, the report said.
Hong Kong govt staffer might have left confidential data on bus
