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Security Incidents Reported to Us

 

We created a set of interactive charts based on the number of incidents every month by types to provide the cyber threat landscape of Hong Kong for the public.  The dataset starts from Jan 2018 to current month. You can also download the data in JSON file format at https://www.hkcert.org/datagovhk/monthly_incident_report_en.json

Botnet

26317

+

Botnet

Phishing

24016

+

Phishing

Malware

5574

+

Malware

Web Defacement/Intrusion

222

+

Web Defacement/Intrusion

Distributed Denial-of-service

122

+

Distributed Denial-of-service

Others

4314

+

Others

Botnet

  • Usually a personal computer that is infected by malicious software to become part of a botnet. Once infected, the malicious software usually hides itself, and stealthily connects to the Command & Control Server to get intrusions from the hackers.

 

Potential Impacts

  • Computers may be commanded to perform other hacking or criminal activities
  • Computer owner’s personal and financial data may be stolen which may lead to financial loss
  • Commands from hackers may lead to other malicious activities, e.g. spreading malicious software or launching DDoS attacks

 

 

Phishing

  • The spoofing of a legitimate website for fraudulent purposes

 

Potential impacts

  • Personal information or account credentials of visitors may be stolen, potentially leading to financial losses
  • Original content may be inaccessible
  • Reputation of the website owner may be damaged
  • Server may be further compromised to perform other attacks
 

Malware

  • Malware is a general terminology and some common types of malware are viruses, ransomware, worms, Trojan horse, spyware and adware

 

Potential impacts

  • Confidential information may be stolen
  • Computer files may be locked up and inaccessible
  • System data and software may be damaged
  • Computer system and network may be disrupted or disabled

Web Defacement/Intrusion

  • Unauthorised alteration of the content of a legitimate website using any hacking methods

 

Potential Impacts

  • The integrity of the website content is being damaged
  • Original content may be inaccessible
  • Reputation of the website owner may be damaged
  • Other information stored/processed on the server may be further compromised by hackers to perform other attacks

Distributed Denial-of-service

  • Multiple systems flood the bandwidth or resources of a targeted system

 

Potential Impacts

  • Targeted system may be unavailable for its intended users
  • Reputation of the system owner may be damaged
  • System owner may be being extorted to pay a ransom in order to stop being attacked
 

Others

Including identity theft, information leakage, unauthorised access, vulnerable system, etc