Hacking forces HKEx to widen data distribution

Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing will widen its information distribution, in the wake of yesterday's hacking of its website.

To prevent similar incidents, Mr Li said HKEx will implement new measures to give greater flexibility to information distribution.

Beginning today, the company will advertise in newspapers every day for 30 days, stating which companies will be making announcements that day.
 
For three times a day HKEx will send snapshots of the bulletin board to HKEx participants and media outlets, so people know which companies are making announcements.
 
“The investors will continue to receive information from multiple, diversified channels. If any particular site is being attacked, we will be less susceptible to such abuses,” Mr Li said.

HKEx Chief Executive Charles Li said its HKExnews website has been under coordinated sustained attack since noon yesterday. The attacks are only on its Internet news website. Derivatives and clearing systems are not affected.
 
HKEx adopted a half day suspension policy for issuers announcing price-sensitive information on the website during the lunch publication window yesterday. The trading suspension policy aimed to give all investors sufficient time to understand the contingency arrangements and locate issuers’ announcements on their websites.
 
Mr Li said it was a painful but necessary decision to make. 
 
“We chose to follow our long tradition of protecting retail investors. I regret our choice resulted in many investors being not able to trade.”