Chang Chi-yuan (張啟元) last month hacked Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (台灣高鐵) online ticketing system, tweaking the refund process to return NT$200,000, police said yesterday.
Chang used his cellphone to purchase a NT$40 ticket from Nangang Station to Taipei Railway Station, then immediately requested a refund, police said.
A company employee noticed the abnormal refund amount and reported the incident to the Taipei office of the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau, police said.
Photo courtesy of Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau
An affidavit on Wednesday said that Chang admitted to making the changes and seeking the altered refund, but added that he hacked the system to prove that it was vulnerable.
“Had I received the NT$200,000, I would have returned it to the company,” the affidavit read.
Chang was released on bail of NT$100,000 after the office charged him with alleged breaches of the Criminal Code, police said.
Chang is a self-proclaimed “white hat” hacker, a computer security expert who specializes in testing systems for vulnerabilities.
Chang last year reportedly hacked the Apple Pay system and purchased 502 iPhones for NT$1, while in 2013 he drew the attention of Facebook after using a loophole to delete posts by Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg.
In 2015, Chang was sued by a local bus operator after infiltrating its online system and buying a ticket for NT$1. While Chang returned the ticket and warned the company of the weakness in its system, the company pressed charges.
Chang was sentenced to 60 days in prison, which was commuted to a NT$60,000 fine.
Chang yesterday wrote on Facebook that he despaired of being Taiwanese after his most recent run-in with law enforcement.
He said that he did not want to admit to being Taiwanese.
“I have already given up on Taiwan,” he wrote.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
RSS