The Registration and Electoral Office (REO) will issue a letter to all electors of geographical constituencies from this evening (March 30) to notify them of the earlier suspected theft of notebook computers containing voter registration particulars to increase their awareness and mitigate potential damage. The REO sincerely apologises for the inconvenience and distress to electors caused by the incident.

     The REO has informed government departments and relevant organisations from various sectors, including finance, insurance, telecommunications, retail, estate agents, information technology, etc., about the incident, and called upon them to adopt appropriate measures to forestall crime by identity theft using the data concerned to protect their own interest and also the interest of the data subjects.

     About 550,000 electors who have provided email addresses to the REO will receive the letter (please see attachment) by email from this evening. The REO will send the letter to other electors by post in batches starting tomorrow. The letter will also be uploaded to the REO website (www.reo.gov.hk).

     Electors may log in to the Online Voter Information Enquiry System (OVIES) (www.voterinfo.gov.hk) to check their registration status and latest registration particulars. If electors have any questions about the letter or find any irregularities concerning their voter registration particulars through the OVIES, they may contact the REO (reoenq@reo.gov.hk).

     On March 27, the day following the 2017 Chief Executive Election, the REO found that two notebook computers stored inside a locked room at the AsiaWorld-Expo in Chek Lap Kok, the fallback venue for the election, were suspected to have been stolen. One computer contains the names of Election Committee members without other personal particulars. As the relevant names have already been promulgated through public platforms, there is no risk of data leakage. The other computer contains the names, addresses and Hong Kong Identity Card numbers of about 3.78 million geographical constituency electors in the 2016 final register. All the information has been encrypted in accordance with the relevant security requirements and is protected by multiple encryptions which are extremely difficult to break through. The REO reported the incident to the Police and is fully assisting in the investigation.

Ends/Thursday, March 30, 2017
Issued at HKT 22:21

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