`Task Force Tiger' put to the test

The Taiwan military recently completed its Hankuang No. 18 (漢光十八) military exercises, incorporating computerized simulations of an invasion of Taiwan in 2005 by the Chinese military. The exercise was the first time that the information warfare group set up by the army last year, "Task Force Tiger" (老虎小組), was a part of the exercises -- featuring in a war game simulation code-named "Lusheng No. 2" (陸勝號).

The Hankuang exercises simulated the army's planned five-step war-development sequence: information warfare, electronic warfare, control of airspace, control of the seas and a counterattack on China.

Teachers from the National Defense University (國防大學) played the role of the Chinese army in a simulation of an information warfare battle against Taiwan. They first used the Internet to spread false information and to disguise troop movements in order to confuse Taiwan's military. They followed this up with intelligence information warfare and psychological information warfare.

They then launched another information warfare assault, using the Internet to send e-bombs and computer viruses in an attempt to cripple Taiwan's information-gathering system.

"Task Force Tiger" countered by using advanced Internet firewalls to keep enemy hackers out and by launching computer viruses against the enemy's computer systems.

The army says it has significantly raised its ability to break enemy database codes and firewall systems. In the exercise it successfully broke into "the enemy's" computers to cripple its information systems.

Taiwan managed to win the information warfare part of the computerized war game, defeating the invading army's information warfare department for the third consecutive year -- making up for deficiencies in the missile defense system.

US observers were reportedly impressed with the army's ability to counter enemy hackers and its ability to design firewalls, and they estimated that Taiwan's information warfare abilities exceed those of China by far.

In related news, a CIA analysis recently concluded that the Chinese government may have the goal of using cyber attacks to disrupt Taiwanese and US military systems, but it does not currently have the capability to do so.

A US official announced the findings on Thursday.

"The view is that they don't have that capability -- being able to disrupt Taiwan's infrastructure, US military systems -- but you have to be mindful of it and concerned that it may be their goal," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

The Los Angeles Times on Thursday reported that the CIA report said, "The mission of Chinese special forces include physical sabotage" of vulnerable systems.

"The People's Liberation Army does not yet have the capability to carry out its intended goal of disrupting Taiwanese military and civilian infrastructures or US military logistics through computer virus attacks," the CIA analysis said, according to the newspaper.

The brief analysis was distributed to US policy makers over the past week as part of a broader national security report.

Cyber disruptions originating in China are usually perpetrated by students during school breaks and tend to be temporary "harassments" such as the defacement of Web sites or virus attacks, the official said.

"A lot of the hacking attacks that we're seeing out of China are from non-state hackers," the official said.