Computer virus warfare developed by the military

Some 1,000 computer viruses have been developed by the military and could be deployed to counter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, an article in a Chinese-language newspaper said yesterday.

"Should the People's Liberation Army (PLA) use electronic warfare against Taiwan, the military, armed with about 1,000 computer viruses, would be able to fight back," Defense Ministry official Lin Chin-ching (林勤經) was quoted as saying in The Liberty Times.

But Lin, who heads the ministry's information and tele-communications bureau, would not go into detail about the computer viruses or how they would be deployed.

He also disclosed that "red" enemy troops for the first time last year beat the "blue" Taiwanese troops in an electronic warfare exercise.

He said the "blue" troops lost after their internal computer networks were invaded by computer viruses created by Lin's bureau.

In a seminar on Saturday, the official reportedly outlined a scenario where China might invade Taiwan's computer systems and alter the outcome of the March 18 presidential election.

The PLA fired ballistic missiles into the shipping lanes off Taiwan during the run-up to the nation's first democratically contested presidential election in 1996, in a bid to suppress what Beijing said was mounting sentiment towards a declaration of formal independence.

The military will earmark a special budget next year to develop a joint-operation system focusing on electronic and information warfare, Lin said.

The system is already operating on an experimental basis in the air force and is set to be extended to other sections of the armed forces once trials have been completed, said Lin.

Lin declined to reveal the size of the project's budget, which he said is still in the planning stage.

The air force experiment is being conducted under the codename "Tienkan" (??z) and features the establishment of an electronic warfare unit using a modified C-130 aircraft as an operations platform.

"The Tienkan project will be extended from the air force to other forces in the future, since coordination by all the forces is absolutely necessary for defense against potential military action by China," Lin said.

The Central News Agency said in a report last October that China's developing electronic warfare capability is expected to pose a direct threat to Taiwan in five years.

It cited satellite communications and reconnaissance expertise as well as electronic magnetic pulse technology, a state-of-the-art weapon which experts said could wipe out an enemy's command systems in minutes.

Several wargames held in China's Nanjing, Beijing and Lanzhou military districts since 1985 have focused on using electronic equipment to destroy enemy computer and communications systems, the defense ministry said.

In August Chinese computer hackers launched an electronic attack on the sites of several Taiwanese government agencies to vent their anger at President Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) claim that relations with Beijing were on a "special state-to-state relationship" basis.

Local hackers fought back, posting Taiwan's national anthem and national flag on several Chinese government Web sites.