Half of 30,000 websites checked in Hong Kong not safe against cyberattacks, group warns

Nearly half of about 30,000 websites in Hong Kong are not safe against cyberattacks, a domain name registration service has warned, while police have said the number of technology-related crimes reported locally has risen 3.5 per cent this year.

The Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation said on Friday that it had regularly examined nearly 30,000 websites over the past five years and found 44 per cent of them used unsafe hyperlinks to third-party services, which could bring them security risks such as data theft and attacks.

The government-designated non-profit organisation, which administers the registration of internet domain names, also found that 32 per cent of the websites disclosed server information, which made it easier for hackers to mount attacks.

Twenty-six per cent of the websites had improper cookie configurations, which hackers could use to inject malicious code into web pages to induce users to install malware, corporation CEO Wilson Wong Ka-wai said.

Wong urged companies to examine their systems and identify loopholes and risks as well as look for solutions to improve their cybersecurity, rather than simply seeking help from consultants or manufacturers after data breaches.

“We need to move from passively dealing with problems to taking the initiative to see if we have any problems and how to solve them,” he said.