More cyberattacks predicted

The Hong Kong Productivity Council said there would be more targeted and organized cyber attacks.

Lawrence Law, Security Consultant of Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team said there has been an anticipated surge in cyberattacks in 2021 arising from accelerated shift to digital due to the pandemic.

Phishing went up by 35 percent to 3,483 cases in 2020, including fake health organizations asking for Bitcoin donation, update information on the pandemic, cloud document sharing and rescheduled shipping information.

Botnets, with 4,154 cases recorded, remained the top source of reported incidents.

Alex Chan, general manager, digital transformation of HKPC, added that mobile payment services were also being targeted. Three virtual banks faced different security incidents including system overload, DDoS attack and data leakage.

Chan believes manufacturing, retail, foreign governments, healthcare and construction are the top five being attacked.