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Cybercrime doubles and set to go on rising

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Cybercrime has doubled in Hong Kong since 2007 and an internet security expert predicts such cases will continue to increase.

There were 1,378 cases up to November last year, compared with 791 for the whole of 2008 and 678 in 2007, police data shows.

Superintendent Terence Yeung Chi-man, of the Commercial Crime Bureau's technology crime division, said the figures indicated the lack of public awareness towards internet security.

'While some cases of illegal access are linked to hackers, we also note that in many cases the victims' computers were compromised after they visited phishing websites, which then stole their e-mail accounts,' he said.

Phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Of the total number of cases last year, 410, or 30 per cent, involved illegal access to computers, compared with the 46 cases in 2008. Other cybercrimes involved auction fraud and theft in online games, which comprised half the total number of cases.

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