Banks told to get safe

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has urged banks to review their customer data protection policy, given the spate of recent incidents leading to the loss of confidential customer data.
The authority wants banks to designate a senior officer to oversee the process of handling and reporting incidents to minimize the impact of the loss of customer data. Banks are to designate senior officers by the end of this month.

Lenders were also urged to review the effectiveness of existing control measures on customer data protection, as well as procedure relating to data loss incidents and emerging data security threats.

In cases like HSBC, which lost a computer server containing private data of 159,000 account holders in late April, the authority said adequate policies and procedures should be put in place to protect documents that contain customer data.

Earlier this month, HSBC lost a tape containing a total of 25,000 recorded calls.

Adequate data protection procedures should be followed when outsourcing. Banks are also urged to notify affected customers and the authority promptly.

7/11/2008

Karen Wong

The Standard