The good news is that computer-virus attacks are way down, but hacking is on the rise, the city's computer security watchdog said.
The Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Co-ordination Centre, which collects computer-incident reports from local users, issued 308 security alerts last year, the most in 10 years. However, it did not send out a single virus alert for three consecutive years. The centre is a subsidiary of the Productivity Council.
The centre received 980 reports regarding computer-security breaches, up 19 cases year on year. Of these, 382 were about hacking, up 71 per cent. Another 298 were about phishing - the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information - up 14 per cent. There were only 162 reports of virus attacks, the least since 2002.
Roy Ko Wai-tak, the centre's manager, said popular platforms like social networking websites would be an obvious attack target.
'We can see the trend for malware attacks is ongoing. We do not have large-scale virus outbreaks now. Instead, more and more Trojan horses, spyware and other hacking software intrude on our computers. They are of small scale but mutate quickly.'
He said such malware, which secretly assessed information stored on computers, spread by being downloaded inadvertently by unsuspecting users. Links embedding malware are sent out through e-mail, instant messengers and social networking websites to lure users to click on and download them.
He said it was the financial incentive for trading personal data that prompted attackers to shift from using viruses to malware as a means of intruding on computers.