Ten mainlanders were arrested for hacking the computer systems and blackmailing 14 member firms of Hong Kong's Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society in March, according to Xinhua.
Exchange president Haywood Cheung Tak-hay told the South China Morning Post it was 'good to see Hong Kong and mainland police bring the guilty to book so quickly'.
Cheung said the local gold bourse reported the cybercrime to Hong Kong police in March after some members complained their computer systems had been attacked.
'There was a common pattern. Some firms found that their customers could not access the computer systems because they had been blocked by the hackers. The hackers then demanded a payment of about 100,000 yuan (HK$122,540) to free up the systems to resume normal operations,' Cheung said. 'In some cases, the hackers did not hack the computers but only threatened to do so unless the firms paid up. Some firms that did not want their businesses interrupted paid the money.'
Four Hong Kong gold trading firms paid a combined 310,000 yuan into mainland bank accounts nominated by the hackers. The others refused to pay and reported the matter to the exchange.
'Initially we thought these were unrelated incidents but later we found a pattern as all the victims had the same mainland software supplier. We thus reported the case to the police,' Cheung said.