At least seven brokers and eight banks have been targeted in Hong Kong, including HSBC and Bank of China International Securities, Reuters reported citing sources. Two-step authentication for account login and client notification when a transaction had been made would be included to the rules’ draft, a Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) representative said.
In 2016, Hong Kong police have struggled to deal with digital pump-and-dump schemes targeting brokerages - a little-known type of computer-generated fraud that surged in the Chinese territory, according to Reuters. Although the money involved has so far been small, there were 81 such incidents reported in 2016, more than triple the number in 2015, the police added.
One investigator said there had been a new spurt of such attacks in 2017 and banks and brokers were unable to identify the culprits. Authorities believe that hackers accessed brokerage accounts using stolen or guessed passwords, according to investigators.
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