With cybercrime on the rise in Macau and other jurisdictions, our lawyers Tiago Assunção and António Coelho had the opportunity to participate in the webinar “CEO Fraud Alert: Fighting Deepfake in Cybersecurity”, curated by Lexis Nexis Hong Kong and Taiwan, with Byron Phillips (Partner at Hogan Lovells), Janice Chew (Principal at JC Legal), Anthony Chiu (General Counsel at the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority) and Adam Au (General Counsel at MNC), who gave their expert opinion on current trends in Hong Kong.
The discussion began with the definition of CEO fraud, a form of impersonation in which a threat actor pretends to be the CEO (or other senior executive) of an organization and attempts to communicate with other employees, such as members of the finance department urging them to transfer sums of money.
Participants also discussed the most common scams based on their experiences.
In addition to the rise of cybercrime, the potential consequences for victims were also discussed, which can include financial loss, reputational damage, and legal implications.
Janice Chew emphasized that in the event of an attack, time is of the essence and immediate reporting to local authorities/regulators (in Macau, the DSPDP) is crucial to mitigate the damage caused by an attack, while Anthony Chiu focused on the importance of having and following an internal protocol to deal with such an incident.
There was general agreement that the law is not keeping pace with the technology that enables this type of crime, and that jurisdictions such as mainland China and the EU are trying to alleviate the problem by passing legislation that can help counter the tools used by these fraudsters.
Overall, it was a positive experience, and we are happy to take part in such events.
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