Apologize to HKMS members for the regrettable incident

Dear Members of HKMS,

On behalf of the Council of HKMS, I am writing to apologize to all of you for the regrettable incident that a document of the list of membership with personal particulars was unintentionally uploaded on the website of HKMS on February 2009 which was not secured. This incident has been reported by Mingpao Daily today.

The document, containing some of our member’s personal particulars, was only for the internal use of the HKMS. It was not supposed to be available to the public. Indeed, there is no direct link to this document on the website of the HKMS. This error may occur due to several transfers of computer technicians who helped to manage the website of the HKMS.

As soon as we learn this from the reporter yesterday, we have taken immediate steps to correct this mistake. The file has been removed from the website of the HKMS around 8:30 last night, and we have contacted the Google to remove the cache files this morning.  I have also attached our response to the reporter of the Mingpao Daily for your reference.

We are deeply sorry for those  who have been affected and  for the damage to the reputation to the HKMS by this incident. We will pay much more attention to the security measures on our website to protect the privacy of our members in the future.

Sincerely yours,

Zhouping XIN

HKMS

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[Replied from HKMS on December 01, 2013 9:04 PM:]

尊敬的張記者：

非常感謝您提供給我們這一重要信息。對於您的來信，請允許我們作以下的解釋：

1. 香港數學學會的會員詳細信息只是作為我們協會的內部資料，在網站上從來沒有直接連接。

2. 最近數學學會換屆，網站維護人員從一個學校轉移到另一個學校；對網站的需要加密的資料部分交接不夠充分，這個技術失誤是部分內部資料可以搜索到的主要原因。

3. 收到您的來信後，我們已經對相關技術部分加以完善，使得相關的資料重新得到保護。

在此非常感謝您的提醒，使我們能立即處理這個失誤。我們會儘快對受到影響的數學會同仁通過信件表示衷心的道歉。

香港數學學會

[Email from Ming Pao reporter on December 01, 2013 6:38 PM:]

各位數學學會執委：

你好！我是明報記者張煒明。近日我們發現，香港數學學會將其會員名單上載至其網站，350位數學學者個人資料，部份包括出生日期、銀行戶口、住址等，輕易能在google網站被搜尋出來，當中包括著名數學家丘成桐。我們想知道貴會會如何回應和跟進事件？

隨函附上該名單連結：http://www.hkms.org.hk/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/member08.xls

請儘量在今天回應，謝謝！

張煒明 Cheung Wai Ming, Simpson
明報記者（港聞版）
Reporter, Ming Pao Newspapers Limited
T 2515 5517│M 9602 4518│F 2898 3783

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