The Hong Kong stock exchange temporarily suspended the trading of a handful of stocks earlier this week after its stock trading news site hkexnews.hk was hit by a "coordinated and sustained" DDoS. The decision to suspend the trading of seven stocks was made as the affected companies were reportedly scheduled to post "sensitive results" of the morning's trading session.

Though no other systems were affected, the exchange says that to allow these stocks to continue trading would have been unfair to investors who were not able to review the updated information due to the inaccessible news site. As with practically all DDoS attacks, the identity and intention of the perpetrators remain unknown.

Moving ahead, Charles Li, CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, says that the Hong Kong exchange will cease the publication of news on a centralized website in anticipation of similar attacks in future. In a statement, the Hong Kong exchange says it will instead explore the feasibility of an "enhanced distribution model" for the disclosure of pertinent information.

While DDoS attacks are really part and parcel of maintaining a highly visible or popular website, it is nevertheless sobering to observe how this relatively unsophisticated cyber attack resulted in real-life disruption in a stock exchange.

For more:
- check out this article at eWeek
- check out this article at Techworld
- check out this article at Wall Street Journal

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