The National Security Bureau (NSB) has announced that it plans to amend the Government Password Standardization Act (政府機關密碼統合辦法) and design a new defense mechanism to shield government Web sites and systems from Chinese hacking.
The changes would step up the enforcement of regulations and offer incentives for civil servants to observe rules for protecting classified materials, the bureau said.
Local and overseas government units were found to be lax in managing and safeguarding information, and have an outdated concept of security, the bureau said, adding that overseas personnel do not observe necessary security protocols when handling classified materials or equipment.
Photo: Tu Chu-min, Taipei Times
Some personnel even use classified equipment for personal use, which increases the risk of leaking classified information, it said.
“This laxness amid efforts by China to hack into our government information systems is quite alarming,” the bureau said.
Government agencies at every level must enforce security protocols and defense mechanisms for the proper handling of classified equipment, the bureau said.
The array of equipment and environments has necessitated the amendments, which would give agencies a reference to follow to mitigate risks, it said.
Passage of the amendments would ensure that encoding; research and development for new codes; and verification processes adhere to regulations and at least meet safety standards of a certain level, it added.
Oversight agencies must ensure that units’ efforts are improved if found to be deficient, the bureau said.
The amendments say that an emergency that compromises the safety of classified equipment and documents would require their evacuation or immediate destruction.
A joint task force would be established to oversee all password-related affairs for overseas units, including the allocation, or recall and destruction, of classified equipment, they say, adding that the task force would assemble and maintain security-related hardware.
Recent cases of suspected Chinese hacking have included a Nov. 7 claim made on Facebook by National Sun Yat-sen University associate professor Chen Chih-chieh (陳至潔) that university professors specializing in political science or cross-strait studies have had their e-mails monitored — some for up to three years — by someone posing as a school official.
National Defense University military instructor Chang Ling-ling (張玲玲) on Tuesday last week said that she has witnessed two hacking incidents.
In 2005, a Chinese Trojan horse program embedded in an e-mail was sent to the university’s staff e-mail system and gained access to the network, she said.
In 2008, Chinese hackers sent her two e-mails in Korean, Chang said.
The first e-mail — whose senders were aware that she was in South Korea at the time — said that she was being sued and included a file that was supposedly a litigation notice, while the second e-mail said that she was being offered a position to teach Korean at an unnamed university in Taiwan, she said.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a