HKBN To Wipe Databases Quicker After Hacking

Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) said on Monday that in light of a recent hacking attack that saw data on 380,000 former customers stolen, it is going to wipe its database clean over the next three months of those who ended contracts with the firm more than six months ago.

It also said that in future, it will delete information on clients who leave the company within six months, instead of the previous practice of keeping the data for seven years.

The firm added that it will also remove digits from people's credit card and ID card numbers, to make them useless to hackers.

CEO William Yeung admitted that HKBN had some shortcomings when it came to protecting customer information, but said it has learnt its lesson following the data breach.

"If we can review all these policies earlier, then, yes, we should have avoided the hacking last week," Yeung said.

He added that regulators will have to give the company's action plan the go-ahead.

HKBN said the hackers got hold of names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses and identity card numbers of former customers, and in many cases, credit card numbers as well.