Hong Kong’s Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data Stephen Wong has launched an investigation into Cathay Pacific (CX, Hong Kong International) after a data leak which affected 9.4 million passengers, Reuters has reported.
"There are reasonable grounds to believe there may be a contravention of a requirement under the law. The compliance investigation is going to examine in detail, amongst others, the security measures taken by Cathay Pacific to safeguard its customers’ personal data and the airline’s data retention policy and practice," Wong said.
Cathay Pacific only revealed the breach in October, although it had happened in March 2018 already. The leak affected passport and Hong Kong personal ID numbers, as well as credit card data but without the CVV codes.
Following the announcement of the breach, Hong Kong politicians and activists called to change the law to make the immediate reporting of such incidents mandatory.
The probe will also include Cathay's subsidiary Cathay Dragon (Hong Kong International).
