Hong Kong At ‘Serious Risk’ Of Cyberattack Amid 7 Million Daily Attempts Worldwide, Cyber Security Experts Warn

Hong Kong is certainly at a "serious risk" of cyberattack, with an average of 7 million hacking attempts daily worldwide, a Hong Kong cyber crime research centre warned authorities, urging them to do more to protect themselves from such an attack.

According to Frank Tong Fuk-kay, CEO of the government-funded Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI), security officials are in a serious need to step up resources and efforts to stop cybercrimes, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported Saturday.

Tong's comments came just a week after ASTRI warned authorities that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and People’s Bank of China were among a long list of central banks that may be the top targets for hacking group Anonymous in May.

“More resources are needed in ensuring cyber security if Hong Kong keeps up its position as the global financial centre,” Tong told the SCMP in an interview Friday. “[Hong Kong] needs to train its own experts. Even some banks have a chief technology officer on director boards, which shows how important cyber security is.”

ASTRI and Hong Kong Police Force have organized a cyber security summit from Monday to Wednesday, which will be attended by cyber experts from Interpol and countries like the United States, Australia, Ireland, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong.

During his interview with SCMP, Tong warned that the increase in the use of financial technology on banks, insurance companies, airlines, public transport service provides and hospitals, involve large amounts of personal data, which could be targeted by hackers.

Norse, a cyber threat intelligence network service provider, revealed that on average nearly 7 million hacking attempts are made worldwide each day. The hacks involve targeting web pages, individual machine infection through malware, and also critical infrastructure attacking, according to Duncan Wong, ASTRI’s director. He also added that hackers conduct cyberattacks for several reasons, including financial gain and political reasons.