The number of computer-hacking cases reported to police in the first eight months of this year was 138 compared with 13 for the whole of last year. Senior Inspector Paul Jackson of the Police Computer Security Unit disclosed the figures yesterday during a seminar on Internet-related data protection organised by the Federation of Hong Kong Industries. While the figures might suggest more organisations were willing to report hacking crime than previously, Inspector Jackson said 'far too many organisations do not report hacking cases for fear of bad publicity'. He did not give figures on damage suffered by victims, saying it was difficult in many cases to qualify the monetary losses. The number of cases involving the private sector was not revealed. Inspector Jackson cited one case under investigation in which the network of a large SAR organisation had suffered multiple hacking attacks for three months early this year before they were discovered. 'The source of the attacks was from overseas, but we don't know all the things the hacker might have done and therefore cannot be sure of the extent of damage,' he said. Meanwhile, an Internet auction case, still under investigation, involved Hong Kong fraudsters and multiple victims worldwide. The number of Internet shopping fraud cases reported in the first eight months was 13, compared with one for the whole of last year. Inspector Jackson said the application of laws on e-commerce fraud cases had been difficult as new types of frauds appeared all the time. 'We are on a big learning curve [on e-commerce cases],' he said. Inspector Jackson said his unit had maintained a close liaison with SAR Internet service providers and was trying to set up an informal group for them to share their experiences on computer crime and solutions. Another speaker at yesterday's seminar, Director of Information Technology Services Lau Kam-hung, said the Government would set up its Secure Central Internet Gateway early next year, adopting internationally accepted security standards. 'It will protect the government bureaus and departments by means of fire-walls, virus-detection systems and pro-active intrusion-detection systems,' he said. TECHNOLOGY
