Man arrested for alleged theft of laptops, devices from Hong Kong Productivity Council
- Hong Kong Productivity Council says several laptops were suspected to have been stolen by outsourced personnel
A 36-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of stealing dozens of laptops and computer devices from a government-funded agency tasked with boosting productivity in Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Productivity Council revealed the case on Saturday but stressed that the items were protected by encryption technologies and that so far no data appeared to have leaked.
The council said several laptops, which were previously used internally and were about to be put out of service, had disappeared. It said it had reported the case to police after its own probe suspected criminal activity was involved.
The council said based on surveillance records, it suspected that outsourced personnel had taken away the laptops stored in a locked computer room without permission.
Dozens of laptops and computer hard drives, as well as memory and graphics cards, were suspected to have been stolen, it said, adding it had already contacted the former users of the laptops.
“As encryption technology has been activated on the laptops and hard drives involved for protection, no data leakage has been found at present,” it said.
