Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券) and President Securities Corp (統一證券) yesterday said that their sub-brokerage trading systems were hacked, with several clients buying Hong Kong-listed stocks against their will.
President Securities said in a statement that a sub-brokerage trading account belonging to one of its clients showed abnormal activity on Thursday afternoon and further investigation revealed that seven such accounts had purchased Hong Kong stocks, despite the owners not placing such orders.
The company blocked suspicious network segments, notified the clients and asked them to change their passwords, and suspended its digital trading channel for suspicious stocks, it said.
Yuanta Securities also reported that one of its sub-brokerage trading systems had been hacked on Thursday, with several clients buying Hong Kong stocks without placing such orders.
Yuanta Securities suspended its digital trading platform for the .sub-brokerage and helped clients place orders manually, the Taiwan Stocks Exchange (TWSE) said in a statement.
The TWSE said that Yuanta Securities and President Securities notified it of the events on Thursday afternoon.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday said that it had ordered the two companies to submit reports clarifying the incidents and submit improvement plans within a week.
They must ensure investors’ rights, the commission said.
Chinese-language media reported that the Hong Kong-listed shares that were purchased were of Sunlight Technology Holdings Ltd (深藍科技).
Sunlight Technology’s share price on Thursday was volatile, with major shareholders selling a combined 4.14 percent.
Neither the FSC nor the TWSE had verified the media reports as of yesterday.
The TWSE said that it had asked all securities companies to examine their trading systems for vulnerabilities.
If their systems only require simple information, such as a national identity number and a password, to sign in, their security should be tightened immediately, the exchange said.
Yuanta Securities yesterday said on its Web site that it had suspended its trading app that Mitake Information Corp (三竹資訊) developed and advised its clients to use an app that Yuanta Securities developed itself.
Mitake said in a filing to the Taipei Exchange that the breaches at the securities firms had nothing to do with Mitake and its operations remained normal.
“The hackers might have used passwords leaked online to attack the trading system,” Mitake said in the filing.
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