Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEx) today said its website services have resumed operations after a “temporary interruption”, widely believed to be the result of a hacker attack.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange website was hacked and partially disabled as various companies reported their earnings.

Following the hacking attack, the exchange had to suspend trading in shares of seven companies, including HSBC, Cathay Pacific Airways and Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd, which runs the bourse.

HKEx has referred the incident to the police and the Securities and Futures Commission and is investigating the cause of the problem, the bourse said in a statement.

During the interruption, HKEx had activated a Bulletin Board (www.bulletinboard.hk) for information disclosures. The bulletin board will continue to operate in parallel with the HKExnews website today as well.

HKEx’s other systems were not affected by the incident and trading in its securities and derivatives segments functioned normally, the bourse said.

With this incident, the bourse joins the long list of companies, ranging from Sony Corp to Citigroup Inc and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc that have been targeted by hackers.

Recently, security firm McAfee said in a report that 72 organisations, including major US defence groups, have been the victims of a cyber attack that began in 2006, making it one of the largest concerted hacking attempts in history.

The long list of victims in the five-year campaign include the governments of the US, India, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam and Canada; the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); the International Olympic Committee; the World Anti-Doping Agency and US Energy Department lab, besides agencies and companies in Denmark, Germany, Indonesia and Singapore, the McAfee report said.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW