Hong Kong police relaunched a citywide campaign on Monday to boost local firms’ cyber security capacity, following a surge in cyberattacks on businesses.
The second edition of the Bug Hunting Campaign kicked off on Monday, aiming to assist at least 150 small and medium-sized enterprises in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region bolster their cybersecurity awareness and capacities.
Enterprises participating in the campaign will undergo cyber-security vulnerability testing, and receive daily briefs on new vulnerabilities and threats as well as bi-weekly summary reports
Enterprises participating in the campaign will undergo cyber-security vulnerability testing, and receive daily briefs on new vulnerabilities and threats as well as bi-weekly summary reports. Cybersecurity experts will also work to fix the identified vulnerabilities and provide one-on-one consultations.
The program, which will run until Aug 30, also includes the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) for the first time as a strategy partner to give seminars on handling data leakage accidents.
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Participating organizations can also engage in incident response training and attend lectures organized by the PCPD to gain further insights into network security matters.
Police said the move is in response to the mounting cyberattack threats faced by local SMEs as they often lack resources and expertise to defend themselves against hackers.
At a recent news conference, Senior Superintendent Raymond Lam Cheuk-ho said the city logged 18,758 cases of cyber threat intelligence in the first quarter this year. The figure dropped by 27.8 percent year-on0year due to a decrease in malware attacks, according to the police, but other forms of attacks, including phishing and zombie software, were on rise.
The number of cyberattacks targeting enterprises is also rising fast, police said.
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In the first four month of 2024, police were informed of 14 cases of system intrusion, which doubled from the seven cases in the same period last year, causing a loss of HK$1 million ($128,083). Police also recorded 17 cases of ransomware targeting businesses from January to April, marking a three-fold year-on-year increase.
Additionally, the campaign’s troubleshooting services are free to organizations, and individuals who identify any vulnerabilities will receive cash rewards. Enterprises can also receive a subsidy of HK$10,000 to hire talent to fix network security vulnerabilities and obtain a badge to indicate the soundness of their systems.
In the first Bug Hunting Campaign in 2023, 60 organizations participated, uncovering 197 security vulnerabilities, with 10 percent classified as severe and approximately 40 percent as high-risk vulnerabilities.
