DDoS attack disrupts trading on Hong Kong’s stock exchange

The website of Hong Kong’s stock exchange has been hit by a DDoS attack and trading has been suspended as the site in question is used for publishing announcements by trading companies and the information contained in them is often crucial for market players.

The site went down on Tuesday and returned back online of Wednesday evening after experts from the company supplying the stock exchange’s intrusion protection technology successfully implemented a filter mechanism to fend off further attacks.

“Today, HKEx is still observing malicious traffic attempting to access the HKExnews website and is continually adjusting and strengthening the filter mechanism,” says in the statement published on the site.

Charles Li, HKEx’s chief executive, has shared that the DDoS attack seems to be carried out by using a botnet located outside Hong Kong.

To prevent such disruptions in the future, the management also decided to make the announcements accessible via other sources. So, they’ll be available via the stock exchange’s Bulletin Board service, paid advertisements in local newspaper, and snapshots of the notices of announcements will be sent out via emails and to third-party portals for publication.