Alibaba cloud executive called in by Shanghai authorities regarding data break--WSJ

The U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. dropped 4.3% in midday trading Thursday, after The Wall Street Journal reported that Shanghai authorities called in the ecommerce giant's cloud division for talks regarding the theft of a large police database earlier this month. The WSJ report said the stolen data had been stored on Alibaba's cloud using technology that was several years outdated and lacked basic security features. The Alibaba executives called in for the meeting with authorities included recently hired Cloud Vice President Chen Xuesong, the WSJ report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Alibaba's stock has gained 9.3% over the past three months, while the iShares China Large-Cap ETF has slipped 1.2% and the S&P 500 has dropped 14.3%.

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