The Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre (HKCERT) has blamed AI for the rising cybersecurity cases in its domain.
Reports by a local media outlet on 20 January reveal that the number of cybersecurity cases in the region reached a 5-year high in 2024.
Hackers use artificial intelligence (AI) to manipulate data systems and generate malware, making it easier to trick victims, the report said.
Phishing scams take the lead
Of all the cybersecurity cases handled by HKCERT in 2024, phishing scams were on top of the list, with more than 50% of all cases.
The agency recorded 12,536 cybersecurity incidents in 2024, which is an increase of 62 per cent from 7,752 cases in 2023, marking a five-year high.
Of this number, phishing cases more than doubled to 7,811 from the 3,752 in 2023, thus accounting for more than 50% of the 2024 cases.
Further, a quarter of the phishing cases are said to have focused on banking, finance and e-payment services, while social media and instant messaging apps like WhatsApp also made up another 22 per cent of the cases.
Of major importance is the number of phishing URLs which increased by 1œ from 2023, thus exceeding 48,000 cases last year.
Commenting on the data, general manager of HKCERTâs digital transformation division Alex Chan Chung-man said:
âWith the use of AI, the number of phishing links increased exponentially last year. Scammers could use AI to help them draft more polished phishing messages with no grammatical errors, and use AI to generate many believable URLs that look like banking websites.â
According to Chan, these cases will continue to increase in the future as criminals become more sophisticated by using AI.
The bad side of AI
After some initial resistance, AI has become quite popular and is currently used in different industries.
However, it seems the initial fears werenât unfounded after all because of the increasing threats caused by the technology.