![]() By Kenneth Chow |
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Computer hacking crimes are getting more serious in Hong
Kong. The number of crimes increased dramatically from four in 1995 to
138 in the first eight months of 1999. A teenage hacker who refused to disclose his name said
that his intentions were to test his computer skills and obtain some useful
files from other computers. He said that hacking skills could easily be
mastered, as there are many web sites and books on the subject.
Inspector Jackson said the second type of hackers are
those who hack for financial benefits. They are more skillful. "They are interested in financial information like credit card details of Internet shoppers and confidential plans of listed companies which will affect the stock market." Hackers can also send offensive e-mails to companies using the target's computer systems. I"In this sense, the targeted company may suffer a huge loss due to those insulting e-mails and messages," he said. "Some hackers are also motivated by boredom. They may also feel socially isolated," he said. "For this type of criminal, they would like to challenge important organizations like the FBI by sending embarrassing messages to their confidential files." Inspector Jackson said there are two common methods used by unskilled hackers. The first one is social engineering skills. This is adopted by those with no computer knowledge. They just ring up big companies and claim that they are from the technical support department for network maintenance. "They will then ask for login ID and passwords for locating the network problems," said he. Generally, most people will not be aware that they are hackers and give them the password and login ID. The second method is to access other computers by hacking their dial-up account passwords. He said, "there are many web sites containing programmes for hackers. After downloading the programmes, hackers are capable of hacking the passwords of individual computers or computer systems. Login IDs can easily be obtained as they are mostly the first part of the e-mail address, said Inspector Jackson. Inspector Jackson said that since the censorship over the Net is not strict in Hong Kong, hacking cannot be easily prevented. "Unless you have installed monitoring software, it is difficult for individuals to detect whether they are being hacked," said Inspector Jackson. He said that reports from big companies involving computer-hacking crimes are also rare. Even though computer systems are being hacked, big corporations are not willing to report such cases as they want to protect their images. "Their reputation is very important. In case their computer
systems are being hacked, they employ specialists to cover up the problem,"
Inspector Jackson said. For those Internet shopping service providers
"business-to-consumer e-commerce, "computer security is an even more important
issue.
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