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The Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau (CSTCB) has stepped up its efforts to combat technology crimes which doubled from 3 088 to 6 414 cases from the first half of 2019 to the same period of 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
It had been a global trend observed that cyber criminals capitalised on the increased internet usage during the pandemic. Among all technology crimes recorded in Hong Kong in the first half of 2020, e-shopping fraud, naked chat-related blackmail and romance scams recorded a 2.7-fold, 1.3-fold and 52 percent upsurge respectively.
During the “Fighting for Cyber Health Month” in August, the CSTCB held a series of publicity events with other stakeholders to enhance public awareness of cyber crimes. The publicity initiatives included posting anti-technology crime infographics on the Force’s social media platforms, disseminating anti-crime messages in television programmes, as well as broadcasting crime prevention video clips starring artistes and a video blog by social media influencers.
In a press interview on September 4, Superintendent Cheung Tin-lok and Chief Inspector Chan Wai-see of the CSTCB joined forces with Consumer Council and AlipayHK, an e-payment platform, to further deliver anti-crime messages to raise public awareness of the crime trend and to provide tips to the public to prevent them from falling prey to technology crimes. During the interview, Chief Complaints and Advice Officer of Consumer Council, Mr Dragon Chong, shared ways on how to shop online safely, whilst Head of Products from AlipayHK, Mr Karl Wong, shed lights on the security features of mobile payment platforms.
Mr Cheung Tin-lok stated that, through intelligence analysis, the CSTCB had identified a total of 116 fraudsters’ user IDs on various social media platforms who were involved in e-shopping fraud. Also discovered through cyber patrol were 380 phishing websites containing fake mobile applications luring visitors to surrender login credentials or planted with malwares. Requests were made to respective service providers to eradicate those accounts and webpages. Furthermore, in a joint arrest operation with the Commercial Crime Bureau and Singapore Police Force conducted in July 2020, two billion email addresses of potential victims worldwide of a phishing scam were unearthed from the devices of arrested members of a cross-national syndicate. INTERPOL had been notified for follow-up actions with overseas jurisdictions.
Ms Chan Wai-see concluded the press interview by highlighting the CSTCB’s year-long multi-pronged strategies on cyber security. The strategies aim to strengthen the capability of critical infrastructures to guard against cyber attacks and to raise public awareness of cyber security. In the year-long plan, the CSTCB will continue to enhance the round-the-clock services to critical infrastructures provided by its Cyber Security Centre. A series of events including Cyber Security Seminars, Cyber Range Competition and cyber-cum-physical inter-departmental counter-terrorism drills will be held. In addition, Cyber Security Carnival and a city-wide Cyber Security Competition especially designed with primary and secondary school sections will be organised for the general public.
