Chinese attacking CEC computers: DPP's Sandy Yen

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Sandy Yen (莊和子) said yesterday that Chinese hackers had gained access to computers belonging to the Central Election Commission (CEC), the legislature and certain legislative candidates.

"I have received tips and have reported it to the Bureau of Investigation. Their initial investigation showed that computers at these places had been hacked or implanted with viruses by unidentified Chinese hackers," Yen said in a press release.

She said that several legislative aides had discovered that their computers, which are hooked up to the legislature's network, had also been hacked.

Their computers automatically distributed e-mail messages with viruses or fraudulent information to random recipients, she said.

Yen said the bureau had found that Chinese hackers were targeting certain DPP legislative candidates, hacking into their computers and sending e-mail messages to their supporters and the press containing fake information.

The bureau found that at least 20 DPP legislative candidates were affected, she said.

Yen said that the bureau believed Chinese hackers had possibly targeted certain computers to disrupt the elections or affect the campaigns of specific DPP legislative candidates.

The identity of the hackers remains a mystery, Yen said.

Yen said computer technicians were working on computers at the legislature to patch up weak spots in the network, delete viruses and restore files.

In related news, Web log service providers including Pixnet have discovered that domestic blogs are being blocked by Chinese firewalls.

Service providers said the blockade could be related to the upcoming elections and the appearance of political campaign ads on Web sites, or because of this year's Beijing Olympics.

Taiwanese businesses in China say that they are accustomed to Web sites being blocked without explanation.

Pixnet, Taiwan's fifth-largest blogging service provider, noticed two months ago that users in China could not access its content.

After ascertaining that its own systems were functioning normally, Pixnet determined the cause to be Chinese firewalls. While unable to provide an explanation, Pixnet chairman Lee Chun-kuang (李俊廣) said Taiwanese blogs hosted by Wretch, Xuite and Yam were also being blocked.

Taiwanese blogs on Sina, a China-based company, are also blocked, with the exception of blogs that discuss Taiwanese celebrities.

Yam's Taiwanese blogs have been blocked for over a year.

Chinese authorities censor international news concerning China and subjects abroad they deem sensitive, such as the Dalai Lama.

Most Taiwanese media Web sites are blocked in China.

Some search engines and Web services, such as Yahoo, filter their search results in response to pressure from Beijing.