Computer hackers yesterday made a second attempt to crash the Hong Kong stock exchange's regulatory disclosure website.
It came just a day after hackers crashed the site and forced the suspension of trading in shares of seven firms with a combined market value of HK$1.5 trillion, including HSBC Holdings.
Hong Kong police say they suspect that offshore hackers, including some from Asia, are behind the attacks.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) said hackers managed to crash the website on Wednesday, but failed in a subsequent attempt yesterday. The site is used to display company announcements.
As a precaution, HKEx said it had introduced new methods of disclosing company information.
Police said they would seek help overseas to investigate the cases if necessary. No one has been arrested.
'The hackers adopted a mixture of attacking techniques to intentionally interrupt the operation of HKExnews' website,' Bill Chow Tang-bill, chief technology officer of HKEx, told a briefing on the attack. 'The malicious traffic originated from a network of hundreds of personal computers, most of which were based outside Hong Kong,' Chow said.
