Hackers gone wild: Hong Kong cybersecurity incidents up 43pc in 2015 as website attacks leap four-fold
Experts paint a bleak picture this year, filled with extortion and ransomware
Cyberattacks continue unabated in Hong Kong as a rise in mobile phone hacking added to spiralling rates of reported security incidents.
The rise was fuelled by a four-fold rise in website attacks such as phishing to almost 2,000 cases, in most cases affecting businesses, and a doubling of reported attacks on individual smartphone users to 286 cases.
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The centre said extortion – through distributed denial of service attacks, breaches of personal data from mobile devices and theft of credit card details from retail card payment terminals – was among the major threats facing the public this year.
Leung Siu-cheong, a senior consultant at the centre, said attackers sought to reap benefits from data loss and service disruption, including financial losses.
“If you have data leakage, maybe you will have legal liability because you lose customer data,” Leung said. “The result of all of these attacks will be reputational damage.”
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“Cyber criminals will continue to prey on websites with unpatched vulnerability and ill-protected [card payment terminal] systems, eyeing personal data and credit cards,” he said.
“Ransomware extortion will also proliferate as cyber criminals offer paid ransomware service, complete with kits for attacks on different operating systems and to manage ransom payment.”
