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Force/FBI team jails pro hacker
 The crack Computer Crime Section team with the wealth of evidence used in the case |
Commercial Crime Bureau officers have brought an adept local hacker to justice with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The 24-year-old male was jailed for one year by the District Court on February 19, for multiple charges of Criminal Intimidation and Criminal Damage after sending indecent and threatening emails to two female university students in Hong Kong.
CCB Computer Crime Section Senior Inspector Fung Wai-keung and his team officers, who followed the case since April 1999, believed the "master" hacker used a false identity to access an Internet network provider in the United States to send offensive messages to his victims. Obscene emails poured into their accounts and the nuisance only stopped after his arrest in August the same year.
"Upon confiscation of the defendant's computer and paraphernalia, we began an uphill forensics battle to identify the modus operandi. Thanks to two of our computer geniuses, Police Constables Chung Kwok-kei and Wong Ka-sing, we finally figured out what was going on," SIP Fung said.
The PCs said it took a lot of time to locate and decode the offensive files as he had stored them in an extremely professional and intricate manner. PC Wong said the process was meticulous and exhausting: "In one hellish night we handled more than 2,500 suspicious files!"
Worried the evidence collected in Hong Kong may be insufficient, SIP Fung and a Department of Justice officer travelled to the network provider in Colorado in February last year.
"We are grateful for the help of officers from the FBI and the US judiciary in arranging our interviews with witnesses and certifying all statements taken."
SIP Fung said as computer technology advanced, criminals were also becoming more sophisticated so officers must stay up to date and informed.
"The cyberworld is an unprecedented challenge to policing and the successful fight against criminal activities in this elusive environment hinges on close co-operation among law enforcement agencies in different countries and regions," he said.