CybersecurityHong Kong arrests stock exchange hacker
Last Friday authorities in Hong Kong announced that they had arrested a man for hacking into the city’s stock exchange and disrupting the trades of seven companies; two weeks ago the Hong Kong stock exchange’s website was hit with a malicious attack that caused several firms including global banking giant HSBC and the international airline Cathay Pacific to suspend trading for half a day
Last Friday authorities in Hong Kong announced that they had arrested a man for hacking into the city’s stock exchange and disrupting the trades of seven companies.
Police say they detained the man on Thursday and are currently combing through five computers, two mobile phones, and several other items that they confiscated.
“He is being investigated under the offense of access to a computer with criminal or dishonest intent,” a Hong Kong police spokesman said.
Two weeks ago the Hong Kong stock exchange’s website was the victim of a malicious attack that caused several firms including global banking giant HSBC and the international airline Cathay Pacific to suspend trading for half a day.
Officials from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the third largest in Asia, said it had suspended trading to ensure that investors had equal access to companies’ regulatory filings after that portion of its site had been hit.
The exchange said that none of its other systems were affected and that trading in its securities and derivatives markets were operating normally.
The attacks came shortly after HSBC announced the sale of its U.S. credit card and retail services business and Cathay reported its 2011 half-year earnings results.
This is the second cyberattack on stock exchanges as only days before hackers forced the Zimbabwe stock exchange to shut down its site.
