Registration and Electoral Office responds to media enquiries
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The REO is fully assisting in the police investigation of the incident, and will submit reports to the Electoral Affairs Commission and the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau after conducting a comprehensive review on the department’s arrangements for handling voter registration information in the Chief Executive Election. The REO apologises for the distress to electors caused by the incident.
During the 2017 Chief Executive Election, the REO needed to ensure that the fallback venue of the election could start operation at short notice. After completing the venue set-up, the staff put the notebook computers in a locked room at the AsiaWorld-Expo with closed-circuit televisions. When the REO staff picked up materials from the fallback venue on March 27, they found that two notebook computers were suspected to be stolen.
Two notebook computers are suspected to be stolen. One contains the names of Election Committee members with no other personal information. The other computer contains the names, addresses and Hong Kong Identity Card numbers of electors of geographical constituencies which have been encrypted in accordance with the relevant security requirements. The information is protected by multiple encryptions which are extremely difficult to break through. No voting records are stored on these notebook computers.
According to established procedures, on completion of the Chief Executive Election, the information will be deleted from the notebook computers.
The REO will notify affected electors of the incident as soon as possible.
Ends/Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Issued at HKT 23:17
Issued at HKT 23:17
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