Hong Kong police advise hackers to think twice

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Agence France-Presse

HONG KONG (December 25, 2000 11:19 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com)
- Hong Kong police on Monday warned would-be computer hackers of the
territory's stringent penalties against cybercrimes.

The caution came as official figures showed a 300 percent increase in
the number of people connected to the Internet across the territory in
the last two years.

Police warned computer wunderkinds to think twice before using their
talents to hack into other computer systems, as they could face a
maximum sentence of up to 10 years if they caused criminal damage to
the systems or Web sites of others.

More than 36 percent of Hong Kong households have an Internet
connection and more than 1.85 million people aged 10 and over had gone
online in the last year, the figures showed.

Raymond Lau Chi-keung, police commercial crimes bureau senior
superintendent, said most hackers were students trying to show off
their talents to peers.

"Under the peer pressure to show their skills they sometimes go to Web
sites that give tips on hacking, and then they start experimenting.
Most do not actually mean to do anything they feel might be criminal,"
he said.

Early this month, a 19-year-old student was sent to a detention center
after his activities shut down a major computer network, causing huge
financial losses to the company involved.

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