However, on Christmas Day, the concerned website was defaced and it was later discovered that 25,000 card holder records had been downloaded unlawfully by hackers. Due to its seriousness, the company's Director of the Security and Risk Management, Asia Pacific Region, Mr Barry Wong, immediately made a report to the Technology Crime Division (TCD) of Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB).

Swift action by officers

Urgent investigations traced the access back to two systems in Hong Kong and officers of Investigation Team B (Operations) of TCD arrested two Filipino men and a Filipino woman in connection with the case.

In appreciation of detection of the hacking case, the Senior Vice President of the company's Regional Business Development, Mr Stuart McDonald, held a presentation ceremony on January 15 to praise the professionalism and the excellent performance of the officers who had resolved the case.

Mr Stuart said: "The swift detection of this case demonstrates the professionalism of the Hong Kong Police to international financial institutes. Apart from maintaining Hong Kong as one of the safest and most stable societies in the world, the Hong Kong Police prove that they are also capable of maintaining a safe and regulated environment on the Internet."

Head of CCB, Chief Superintendent Vincent Wong, said: "In this case, TCD not only has displayed their professionalism to international organisations, but also demonstrated our determination and capability in the fight against technology crimes."

Serious incident

TCD's Chief Inspector (Operations), Mr Lawrence Wong, told OffBeat: "This is a serious incident in which about 25,000 credit card holders' details have been compromised by the hackers. If the obtained information has fallen in the hands of other syndicates, the impact will have been tremendous.

"Since the Internet is borderless and most of the hackers would use 'springboard' to sidetrack investigations by the police, this type of case is usually very difficult to detect. Through the patience of the investigation team as well as the urgent co-operation of the local Internet Service Providers, the unlawful access was traced to two premises in Tsim Sha Tsui and Central where three suspects were arrested for the hacking offences on January 2.

"This was an excellent case, which demonstrates the professionalism of the investigation team - particularly as investigation was carried out during public holidays!" Mr Wong concluded.

Officers of the TCD Investigation Team B (Operations) have been praised for their work

Detection of the "hacking case" demonstrates CCB's determination and capability in curbing technology crimes