14 DAY TRIAL // Hong Kong police has arrested an individual suspected of being responsible for the recent distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx).
Two weeks ago, HKEx was forced to suspend trading for seven stocks including HSBC, Cathay Pacific, China Power International and the exchange itself, because the website used for announcements was attacked.
Investors rely on timely information posted on this site to make decisions, so the exchange decided that it's better to temporarily suspend trading for stocks that were about to issue announcements.
The attacks continued for several days and HKEx reverted back to the traditional way of publishing announcements in local newspapers and through international news agencies.
HKEx CEO Charles Li said at the time that the attack originated from computers around the world which suggested the use of a botnet. In such cases, tracking down the responsible individuals is very hard.
However, it seems that Hong Kong authorities have identified one suspect, a 29-year-old businessman who was arrested in Hong Kong's Kwun Tong industrial area.
His name has not been released yet and the details are scarce. It's not clear if he acted alone and what his motives might have been.
This is another example of how damaging DDoS attacks can shows why engaging in such actions is punishable with jail time. The notorious Anonymous hacktivist collective uses DDoS as its primary method of attack.
However, the group considers such attacks the virtual equivalent of real world sit-ins or other peaceful forms of protest. There are numerous cases where individuals who participated in Anonymous-organized DDoS attacks have been arrested and even sentenced to prison.
Cyber criminal gangs also offer pay-per-DDoS services in which customers can rent powerful botnets for a limited period of time and use them to attack websites and other targets.