A spate of cyberattacks against local brokerages that began last week has been thwarted, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.
About 10 major brokerages reported receiving e-mails demanding a ransom or computer network access, including Web sites and market order systems, the commission said.
A number of brokerages experienced slowed Web site access last week in a show of force by hackers, the commission said, adding that such widespread threats are unprecedented, as previous cyberattacks focused on individual companies, such as threats made to First Securities (第一金證券) in September last year.
Apart from a brief disruption at the beginning of yesterday’s session at Capital Securities Corp (群益證券), all other local brokerages were unaffected, the FSC said.
Capital Securities said that it received a ransom e-mail on Wednesday last week demanding 10 bitcoins (US$10,233).
The company took precautions the following day and asked its Internet service provider, Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), to activate security measures before yesterday’s session, it said.
Capital Securities said that it detected a cyberattack at 8:50am yesterday morning, affecting about 5 percent of market orders placed by its clients during a 10-minute period ending at 9am, a company official told the Taipei Times.
During the period, customers were redirected to place their orders by telephone or voicemail, and the breach was quickly overcome with backup systems and other response measures, the official said.
The company said it does not negotiate with hackers as it would only lead to more cyberattacks.
Meanwhile, the commission has asked brokerages to bolster their cybersecurity measures and conduct cyberattack simulations.
The commission also announced plans to establish a financial information sharing and analysis center that would provide national financial systems with timely security threat bulletins and counterattack resources.
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