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SCMP Reporter

HK No 2 in regional cyber fraud

Hong Kong hosts the second largest number of fraudulent websites in the region, an internet security report reveals.

Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report, released yesterday and covering the first half of this year, reveals the city ranks behind only Taipei in the plague of phishing - fraudulent messages used to lure recipients to bogus websites to divulge their personal details.

Hong Kong was listed fourth in the second half of last year.

Symantec, a US-based security provider, collects data on threatening internet  activities from its 120 million clients in 180 countries, and the servers and gateways that have installed Symantec's anti-virus products.

Bangkok ranked third in phishing sites in the region, followed by Tokyo and Seoul.

'Phishing websites will attract internet surfers by promoting their offers for free concert tickets or supermarket coupons,' said Michael Chue Hoi-kwok,  managing director of Symantec (Hong Kong and Taiwan).

Another threat, malicious code attacks, also  were used by people seeking financial gain rather than thrills or notoriety, Mr Chue added. 'The attacks that [crash]  your computer are now very rare. Most of them want to steal the personal details.'

The report said cyber-criminals were becoming more 'commercial' - tool kits for malicious coding  have been found on the black market - and that means hackers are now better equipped and more 'professional'.

Mr Chue added that there was a growing trend  of threats supposedly using  trusted environments on the internet. He  cited the case of an eBay  user who had lost more than US$20,000 through the PayPal system.

'His credit card details were stolen on phishing websites, but the cyber-criminals made use of trusted eBay to get the money,' he said.

Social websites such as myspace.com and Facebook were also posing risks to personal information leaks.

'Many people will put true information in their virtual community, and that becomes a hot spot for cyber-criminals to get the details,' Mr Chue said.

Figures from the government-funded Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Co-ordination Centre show 616 complaints about locally hosted phishing websites were reported from January to August.

A total of 434 were received for all of last year.

Centre manager Roy Ko Wai-tak  said  he expected the overall figure this year could be double what it was last year.

'Sometimes we find that the phishing websites are hosted on school servers and individual computers which were planted by hackers from outside,' Mr Ko said. '[The schools] don't even  realise their computers  have been hacked into.'



City a phishing paradise, Web survey shows