Businessman arrested for HKEX hacking

A 29-year-old businessman has been arrested in connection with the cyber attacks on the Hong Kong stock exchange's website last week.

The suspected hacker was taken into custody on Thursday after police raided his home in Yuen Long and the IT company he owns in Kwun Tong, where 17 computers as well as two mobile phones and five digital storage devices were seized.

'It is not too much of an overstatement to say that he is a computer expert,' said a senior police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

'We believe we have got the right man. Whether the man took part [in the attacks] to show off his ability or he had some other dishonest intent, we still need to investigate. We do not rule out that there will be further arrests.' The suspect was still being held for questioning yesterday.

Superintendent Chiu Sau-mee of the commercial crime bureau's technology crime division said her officers had identified the suspect after scouring computer records obtained from the stock exchange after the first attacks on Wednesday last week.

'We arrested the man in Kwun Tong for the offence of access to computers with dishonest or criminal intent,' said Chiu. Police said they were still investigating the motive for the attacks, and whether the suspect had acted on his own or whether he was only 'one point' in a network.