Taiwan is becoming increasingly vulnerable to Chinese espionage, a report from a US congressional commission says.
The report says that expanded cross-strait ties and travel have improved economic cooperation, but also heightened “the risk of Taiwan defense secrets being compromised.”
The annual report of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission — created by the US Congress — was released earlier this week.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Other features from the report appeared in the Taipei Times last month after this newspaper acquired an early copy of parts of it.
“After 15 cases of alleged spying in 2014, nearly all involving active or retired Taiwan military officers, espionage continues to proliferate,” the report says.
It says that China’s increased efforts to acquire Taiwanese defense secrets have significant implications for Taipei’s security.
“Aside from traditional reasons for espionage, China also seeks to weaken the morale of the Taiwan military,” the report says. “Each spy case revealed by Taiwan has the potential to achieve psychological benefits for Beijing, creating an environment where China’s capture of Taiwan’s defense secrets could be perceived as an inevitability.”
The report also says that Taiwan faces a growing problem of cyberattacks — increasingly from China — that threaten the security of sensitive information.
According to US cybersecurity firm FireEye, Taiwan was the third-most targeted nation in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of attempts to steal data last year.
The report says that in March this year, senior Taiwanese intelligence officials publicly identified what appears to be a Chinese cyberespionage unit based at Wuhan University, which is reportedly responsible for cyberattacks against Taiwan.
The unit is reportedly part of the Sixth Bureau of the People’s Liberation Army’s General Staff Department’s Third Department, one of the 12 bureaus controlled by the Third Department whose mission is technical reconnaissance and digital information warfare.
The report says that Taiwan is working to improve its defenses by creating a new cybersecurity department responsible for bolstering the government’s information security and key network infrastructure.
The department is to have authority over military cyberdefense, it says.
Taiwan has asked to join the US-led Cyber Storm multilateral cybersecurity exercise, which is held every two years.
Experts say that Cyber Storm would help protect the nation from Chinese cyberattacks.
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