HK watchdog probes Hospital Authority leak of 56k patient data

Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog and police are investigating a large-scale data leak involving over 56,000 patients served by the Hospital Authority. The authority on Saturday apologised to affected victims—patients of hospitals in Kowloon East—for the breach that exposed names, identity card numbers, genders, dates of birth, dates of hospital visits and details of surgical procedures, among other information.

The authority’s monitoring system detected a suspected unauthorised retrieval of patient information and a leak on a third-party platform at around 2am on Friday, although a subsequent review of its internal network systems did not indicate a cyberattack. Read more at South China Morning Post. The disclosure notes the incident affects more than 56,000 patients and emphasises that the breach involved a range of personal data accessed via an external platform.