PCPD - Seminar on Protecting Personal Data in the Electronic Media

Date: 26 March 2007

Seminar on "Protecting Personal Data in the Electronic Media"

1.    The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) organized a public seminar on “Protecting Personal Data in the Electronic Media” today (26 March) aimed at raising privacy awareness among IT professionals.

2.    Officiating at the seminar, the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Mr. Roderick Woo, said: “Last year, my Office handled a record high number of cases involving online data leakage. We have often found that organizations’ failure to protect data was largely due to a lack of awareness with regard to data protection. To promote good data protection practices in the handling of personal data via electronic means, my Office is offering a range of training tools and activities for IT practitioners.”

3.    Two guest speakers were invited to speak at the seminar. Mr. Dale Johnstone, Chief Information Security Officer of PCCW Ltd., will speak on industry best practices for protecting personal identifiable information. Mr. Micky Lo, Managing Director and Head - Asia IT Risk Management, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A, will identify some common pitfalls in IT operation and offer ways for improving data privacy.

4.    In October 2006, the PCPD launched the Information Security Enhancement Campaign (“ISEC”) jointly with the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (HK Chapter) (ISACA), Internet Professional Association (iProA) and Hong Kong Institute of Engineers (HKIE) appealing to IT practitioners to comply with the requirements of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.

5.    “Information is an essential asset for organizations because it supports the day-to-day operations and facilitates decision making by key stakeholders. The challenge facing organizations is how to provide access to this asset without compromising its integrity. No organization wants to appear on the front page of a national newspaper because of a leak of customers personal information in their safekeeping.” Ms. Susanna Chiu, Immediate Past President & Director of ISACA (HK Chapter) said.

6.    “Announced cases for the leakage of personal data on the Internet in the past and currently is only the tip of the iceberg. In long run, the concept of information security and procedures and controls over IT infrastructure and applications has to be promoted among all IT   practitioners and C-level management, which is the aim of ISEC. There are security guidelines and standards like ISEC guideline, ISO27001, WebTrust, etc. which internet applications and websites developers can follow for enhancing security protection over personal data connected,” Dr. Elizabeth Quat, Co-founder of iProA said.

7.    Dr. Chun-leung Chan, Immediate Past Chairman, IT Division of HKIE said: “Protection of personal data is always a core element of the professionalism of IT engineers. IT engineers understand the importance and will follow the practices. However, in the current electronic media environment, personal data are always handled by non-IT professionals. Owners of corporations and organizations must aware of this. If they need to handle personal data in electronic media, they must make sure that their staff have enough training and strictly follow the practices.”