The Official Receiver’s Office (ORO) today expressed its sincere apologies over the loss of seven magnetic backup tapes on December 23 last year, and the delay in reporting the incident.

The ORO received a report on January 22 that the magnetic backup tapes were lost in transit from the Immigration Tower to Queensway Government Offices by ORO staff.

The tapes contain personal data of about 76,000 individuals. The ORO said it is notifying the affected parties by batch.

The tapes were stored in a locked protective case and the data therein is encrypted with AES-256, a highly secure encryption algorithm. Having consulted the Digital Policy Office, the ORO considers that the risk of personal data leakage is extremely low.

Based on the current investigation, the ORO said there is no evidence that the data contained on the tapes has been read or compromised.

The incident has been reported to the Police Force, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, the Security Bureau and the Digital Policy Office.

In addition to stressing that it is extremely concerned about the incident and has taken immediate action to review all transit procedures and data protection practices, the ORO made it clear that it has refined such procedures with immediate effect.

It is also conducting a thorough investigation into the staff concerned and the details of the case, including the delay in reporting the loss to senior management.

Appropriate disciplinary actions will be taken, the ORO noted.

It added that it has reminded its staff to comply with departmental guidelines and exercise due care in handling personal data. Furthermore, the ORO will review all guidelines on data security and examine the adoption of safer and more effective backup methods and procedures.

For enquiries, call 2867 2448 or write to oroadmin@oro.gov.hk.