The number of reported technology-based crimes in Hong Kong dipped over the past year, but financial losses from hacking more than doubled to HK$62.6 million (US$8 million), prompting police to urge companies to bolster their cybersecurity checks.
Carmen Leung Oi-lam, senior superintendent of the force’s cybersecurity and technology crime bureau, attributed the surge in money lost, despite the overall drop in technology cases, to several high-value cyberattacks on financial institutions and cryptocurrency platforms.
“Even though [hacking and ransomware] cases may seem to only take up 0.3 per cent of all technology crime, each case can cause a serious impact on the organisations affected,” Leung warned.
Police recorded 31,571 technology crime cases in 2025, a category covering a range of online crimes such as scams and hacking. The figure represented a 6.9 per cent drop from 33,903 cases in 2024.
Among last year’s cases were 52 instances of hacking and 43 reports of ransomware, with reports of both crimes decreasing from 2024.
But police figures showed that financial losses from hacking had more than doubled from HK$25.5 million in 2024 to HK$62.6 million last year.
Total losses from all technology crimes in 2025 stood at HK$6.32 billion, which was 23.2 per cent higher than HK$5.13 billion the year before.
In the first quarter of this year, the force recorded 6,504 technology crime cases – a 15.3 per cent drop from 7,680 in the same period last year. Overall losses also dropped by 10 per cent from HK$1.43 billion last year to HK$1.29 billion.
But hacking-related losses in the first quarter of 2026 surged by 69.6 per cent year on year to HK$21.2 million.
The largest single financial loss recorded that quarter involved an employee of a software contractor for a cryptocurrency transaction platform, who allegedly stole about HK$20 million from clients’ electronic wallets in February.
The employee was later arrested by police.
The force also analysed more than 35 million pieces of intelligence from last year, finding that system loopholes made up the largest proportion of local cyber threats, accounting for 34 per cent, or 524,000 items.
Superintendent Rachel Hui Yee-wai of the same bureau said that hackers typically targeted web application systems, network devices facilitating communication between different devices, and outdated or vulnerable application components.
Such attacks typically involved running malicious code on computers or networks belonging to targeted organisations, she said.
Hui added that the force had detected more than 421,000 phishing-related hazards last year, accounting for 27 per cent of threats analysed.
The cybersecurity hazards were discovered on instant messaging software, as well as banking, logistics, and online and bill payment platforms.
The force also detected about 8,000 security loopholes after separately analysing the digital assets of local critical infrastructure operators last year, such as websites, web domains and IP addresses.
The figure accounted for 7.8 per cent of the checked assets.
About 5 per cent of the loopholes were classified as high or extremely high risk. They included leaked login details, dormant web domains and improper cloud storage settings lacking additional verification requirements.
“Hackers tend to aim for high-net-worth targets, such as systems storing sensitive information. If the attack is successful, it will cause a huge impact,” Hui said.
“Organisations must repair their systems as soon as possible and make comprehensive attack response plans.” -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
