Security Blog

Ransomware Trends Q2 2023: Surge in Attacks Across Asia-Pacific, Persistent Multiple Extortion, and Evolving Threat Landscape

The evolution of ransomware has significantly affected businesses in recent years. Current trends indicate that ransomware developers are increasingly inclined to employ multiple extortion strategies. Furthermore, they have expanded their focus to platforms that previously received less scrutiny, such as the macOS operating system. Employing...

Release Date: 22 Sep 2023 2083 Views

FEATURED BLOG

HKCERT Alerts the Public on Preventive Measures Against WhatsApp Account Theft

Recently, there has been a surge in cyber attack targeting WhatsApp accounts. Hackers are sending messages to victims, impersonating their friends and family, and requesting that the victims forward the registration codes of their WhatsApp accounts. The fraudsters exploit these registration codes to gain access...

Release Date: 6 Sep 2023 2098 Views

FEATURED BLOG

Comprehensive Guide to Social Media Scams: Setting up Defense to Safeguard Your Personal Information

Social media has become a necessary part of people's daily lives, but it has also attracted the attention of unscrupulous individuals. The Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre (HKCERT) reminds the public to be cautious of social media scams and to always...

Release Date: 18 Aug 2023 1970 Views

FEATURED BLOG

Introducing the New HKCERT “All-Out Anti-Phishing” Thematic Page

Noticing that hackers are deploying phishing through various means, including email, social media and SMS, phishing attacks have become an increasingly threatening major cyber security threat in Hong Kong. Such phishing scams have posed a great impact to our society that individual victims could suffer from...

Release Date: 16 Aug 2023 1866 Views

HKCERT Urges Users of Remote Access Tools and NAS Devices to Beware of Ransomware Attacks

(Hong Kong, 19 October 2021) The Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre (HKCERT) of the Hong Kong Productivity Council is urging local users of remote access tools and network-attached storage (NAS) devices to step up security to fend off...

Release Date: 21 Oct 2021 3231 Views

OWASP Top 10-2021 is Now Released

Introduction Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), a non-profit foundation dedicated to web application security, has recently published its latest Top 10 web application security (AppSec) risks (OWASP Top 10). Widely recognized in the IT industry, OWASP Top 10...

Release Date: 4 Oct 2021 9505 Views

“HKT Hong Kong Enterprise Cyber Security Readiness Index 2021” Up 2.7 Points to 49.6 Both Enterprises and Employees Are Urged to Strengthen Cyber Security Awareness to Defend Against Cyber Attacks Amid Rampant Phishing Emails

Updated on 27-October-2021: The full report of “HKT HK Enterprise Cyber Security Readiness Index 2021” has been added below. The Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) released the results of the “HKT Hong Kong Enterprise Cyber Security Readiness Index 2021...

Release Date: 29 Sep 2021 9019 Views

HKCERT Urges Microsoft Windows Users to be Vigilant Against Malicious Exploit of Critical Vulnerability

Updated on 15-September-2021: Microsoft has released patch to fix this vulnerability in Monthly Security Update on 15-September-2021, please refer to Microsoft Monthly Security Update (September 2021) for details. (Hong Kong, 13 September 2021) The Hong...

Release Date: 15 Sep 2021 8229 Views

Introducing “Check Your Cyber Security Readiness” Online Self-Assessment Tools

The Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre (HKCERT) had previously complied the “Seven Habits of Cyber Security for SMEs” guideline to improve cyber defence of SMEs through seven cyber security aspects. The guideline came with a simple self-assessment checklist for...

Release Date: 7 Sep 2021 11556 Views

Patch Vulnerabilities in Remote Access and Remote Storage Now

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a surge in the adoption of remote access solutions such as virtual private networks (VPNs), remote storage and cloud-based technologies in remote office scenarios. However, these solutions have also exposed a new attack surface to the Internet...

Release Date: 1 Sep 2021 9802 Views

Beware of Malicious or Vulnerable Third Party Dependencies

Rapid growth in third-party dependencies (including open-source libraries, packages and container images, etc.) has significantly changed the modern software development process. Most applications nowadays are built on a combination of in-house and external code. Public open-source...

Release Date: 4 Aug 2021 7293 Views

Ransomware Keep Evolving: Multiple Extortion

Ransomware attacks are currently causing extensive havoc worldwide, becoming one of the biggest cyber threats nowadays. More and more companies and organisations have been materially affected. According to a ransomware report, the average ransomware payment in 2021 Q1 was US$ 220,298, (HK...

Release Date: 22 Jun 2021 6428 Views

Beware of Flash Phishing Attacks

In the first quarter of this year, HKCERT has processed over 300 phishing attack incidents per month on average, up about 30% from same period last year. Apart from the increase in cases, HKCERT has also noticed that hackers have been using new techniques, ...

Release Date: 7 Jun 2021 6818 Views

Protect sensitive information in the use of social media and beware of potential cyber attacks arising from data leakages

The security issue of placing personal information on social media platforms heightened once again after reports of serious data leakages at three of the world’s biggest operators in early April this year: Data of 533 million Facebook users were exposed publicly [1]; Data of 500...

Release Date: 27 Apr 2021 8536 Views