Police on Friday said there were about 160,000 technology crime cases in the first half of the year, a 3.5 percent year-on-year increase.

The force said the total loss incurred in the cases amounted to HK$2.66 billion, and that they noted a surge in the use of blackmail apps.

Chief Superintendent Raymond Lam of the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau said tech crime in Hong Kong is on the rise.

He said though hacker groups are operating in the city, most cases involved overseas groups.

Lam suggested that companies should be proactive when it comes to updating their devices.

"There are a lot of systems which the users do not update on time. If software and hardware are not updated on time, it will have a lot of loopholes. Therefore systems should be updated on time," he said.

The Digital Policy Office, meanwhile, said it checks government systems regularly, and it has not discovered loopholes.

Its Assistant Commissioner Daniel Cheung said they conduct spot checks, and any loopholes will be plugged immediately if they're found.