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Lo Hoi-ying

Edith Lin

Hong Kong civil servants have been restricted from using unauthorised messaging and cloud storage services such as WhatsApp, WeChat and Google Drive on their work computers due to “severe internet safety risks”, the city’s tech minister has said.
Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong on Tuesday said the “strict regulations” concerning civil servants’ desktops were similar to those adopted by authorities in the United States and mainland China, among others.
Authorities earlier said they expected the ban would be fully introduced by this month.
“In the past year, we faced many challenges. Hacking has become more severe,” the minister told a radio programme.
“Desktops used internally in the government cannot have instant messaging services such as WhatsApp or WeChat, as they carry severe internet safety risks.”
Sun said that while he understood the new policy could be inconvenient for civil servants, the measures were part of efforts to enhance cybersecurity.
“The apps are not restricted on their mobile phones. I believe different departments will find their own substitutes,” he said. “I believe there are more solutions than challenges.”
The government updated its information technology security policy in April to require civil servants to obtain authorisation from department heads before installing services such as public cloud storage and web-based messaging services on their office computers.
The policy covers desktop versions of messaging apps such as WhatsApp and WeChat, as well as the use of personal emails by civil servants.
Under the measures, departments and bureaus should also use technical controls such as web content filtering to prevent unauthorised access to prohibited services.
A civil servant told the Post on Tuesday that the most of computers in their office could still access the internet but WhatsApp, Gmail and Google Drive were blocked.
Staff could only access the blocked websites or download files from the internet on several designated computers, the insider added.

The government worker raised concerns about the move lowering efficiency as WhatsApp was used for daily communication between colleagues and also people working outside the government.
Another civil servant from a different department said that only WhatsApp and WeChat had been blocked on office computers so far.
The second source said blocking WhatsApp had been an inconvenient move as it was often used to communicate with external parties on “non-restricted and non-confidential matters”.
“But it is understandable given the security concern,” the government worker said.
The second insider added that their office now mainly relied on phone calls and emails for internal and external communication.
“It will be great if there is some kind of secured instant messaging system for internal communication,” the civil servant said.
Hong Kong authorities reported a series of data breaches in the past year that resulted in residents’ personal information being leaked.
Government bodies were told to carry out cybersecurity checks in May after two departments reported breaches involving the personal details of nearly 130,000 people within two days of each other.
The breach at the Companies Registry exposed the names, identity numbers and addresses of about 110,000 people because of a fault in its digital platform, while a leak at the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department involved the data of 17,000 public housing tenants.
The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer – the government’s top information technology unit – said at the time that it had asked all bureaus and departments to review their cybersecurity measures and report back within a week.


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Hong Kong restricts civil servants from using WhatsApp, WeChat and Google Drive at work

Civil servants will need to obtain permission from their department bosses to use certain apps such as WhatsApp on their work computers. Photo: Reuters

Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong has warned that the use of messaging apps such as WhatsApp or WeChat by civil servants might pose “severe internet safety risks”. Photo: Edmond So

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Calls for the reform of the city’s privacy law have mounted following a spate of data breaches in recent years. Photo: Shutterstock

Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang has suggested implementing reforms on a piecemeal basis to ease the impact on small businesses. Photo: Jelly Tse

The government-funded tech hub Cyberport had its servers compromised last year, leading to a leak involving the data of more than 13,000 users. Photo: Jelly Tse

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The entrance of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data in Wan Chai. Photo: Jelly Tse

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News

Hong Kong

Politics

‘Desktops used internally in the government cannot have instant messaging services such as WhatsApp or WeChat, as they carry severe internet safety risks,’ minister says


‘Desktops used internally in the government cannot have instant messaging services such as WhatsApp or WeChat, as they carry severe internet safety risks,’ minister says.
