Cyber threats in Hong Kong on the rise

The Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre handled a total of 10,583 cyber security incidents in the past year, an increase of approximately 39 percent from the previous year.

According to government documents submitted to the LegCo, the main categories of security incidents were phishing and botnets, standing at 6,141 and 2,663 cases respectively.

As compared with the previous year, the number of phishing cases increased by 83 percent, while the number of botnet cases dropped by about 27 percent.

On the other hand, the Hong Kong Police Force recorded a total of 34,112 technology crimes in 2023, representing an increase of about 50 percent from 2022.

The increase in the number of technology crimes was mainly due to the increase in cases of misuse of computers and internet deception.

“For misuse of computer cases, the increase was mainly attributable to the hijacking of instant messaging application accounts. In the first seven months of 2024, a total of 19,257 technology crimes were recorded, representing an increase of approximately 6 percent over the same period last year.

“While unauthorized access to online service accounts remains the most significant, the increase in the overall number of technology crimes and the amount of money lost have both slowed down significantly when compared with the same period in the past two years,” the document read.

Meanwhile, in the case of personal data, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data handled 224 data breach incident notifications in the past year, which mainly involved hacker intrusions (85 cases), representing an increase of more than 200 percent as compared with the preceding year; loss of documents or portable devices (52 cases),
representing an increase of 63 percent; and accidental disclosure of personal data through email, post or fax (31 cases), representing an increase of 120 percent.

The government said it will continue to enhance cybersecurity awareness and defensive capability of the community on all fronts, as well as publicize anti-fraud information and stop fraud at source.