The HKEx has been attacked by hackers before, but not on such a large scale.

HK bourse website hacked Wednesday

港交所新闻网站遭黑客攻击

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) halted trading of several listed companies Wednesday afternoon citing "technical difficulties" with its news Web site likely caused by a hacking attack, Caixin.com reported.

The news portal, which publishes listed companies' filings and financial results, became inaccessible around midday Wednesday. Seven Hong Kong-listed stocks and one bond, all of which released price-sensitive information earlier that day, were suspended from trading at approximately 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

HKEx's other systems were not affected and trading in its securities and derivatives markets continued to operate normally, officials at the bourse said in a news release.

A preliminary investigation by the stock exchange's technical department attributed problem to hacking. But the source and purpose of the attack were not yet clear, HKEx CEO Charles Li said at a briefing Wednesday.

"I want to emphasize that [hacking] is the current assessment," Li said. "Hopefully we can bring it [the site] back online as soon as we can."

The HKEx has been attacked by hackers before, but not on such a large scale, Li said.

Officials at the exchange used another site, www.bulletinboard.hk, to publish issuers' filings during Wednesday's outage.

The news site had resumed operation Thursday morning, but a spokesperson at the exchange said the bulletin board will continue operation in parallel with the HKEx news Web site Thursday.

由于香港证券交易所的新闻发布网站疑似受到黑客攻击，发生技术故障，港交所周三将几只股票债券停牌，新浪科技报道称。

周三（8月10日）中午，供上市公司发布通告及业绩文件的“披露易”网站发生故障，用户无法读取披露文件。当日公布过股价敏感性信息的七只港股和一只债券当天下午约1点半起停牌。

港交所的其他系统并未受到黑客攻击，其股票及衍生品交易也正常运行，港交所在声明中称。

香港交易所行政总裁李小加在记者会上表示，港交所技术部门初步评估是因为黑客入侵，但不清楚攻击来源和目的。

李小加强调故障来源于黑客攻击仅是当前评估结果，并表示将尽快维修披露易网站系统。

李小加介绍说港交所此前也曾受到黑客攻击，但规模均未超过本次。

昨天披露易网站发生故障时，港交所启用了临时报告板(www.bulletinboard.hk).

周四上午港交所发声明宣布披露易重启服务。但港交所新闻发言人称该报告板周四全天仍会与披露易一同双轨运行。