The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Ministry of National Defense (MND) were both recently targeted by computer hackers believed to be based in China, Defense News reported last week.
The report cited anonymous AIT and defense ministry sources, who said the attackers were believed to have been China-based hackers looking to spread misinformation.
On June 5, a hacker sent an e-mail to the media with an attachment containing a fake press release from the military spokesman's office, the report said. The release described a meeting between People First Party mem-bers and ministry officials, and was riddled with distortions and lies, Defense News reported last Tuesday.
Shortly after the e-mail was sent out, officials scrambled to warn local media not to download any attachments purportedly sent from the ministry.
Some outlets had already reported the story, but others sought confirmation from officials and were told that that the e-mails were part of a smear campaign targeting the ministry, the Defense News report said.
"Our computer was [infected] by a virus. That virus sent a news release to the media. Some of the information [in the release] was incorrect," a ministry source reportedly told Defense News.
The report also stated that the account number and password of the ministry's Web mail system, operated by Chunghwa Telecom, were stolen by hackers.
So frequent and serious are cyber attacks against government agencies that the Straits Exchange Foundation, which handles cross-strait communications with China, issued a letter of complaint to China in 2003, the report said, adding that China did not respond to the complaint.
Private companies also routinely come under attack by China-based hackers, making Taiwan the most hacked country in the world, according to a Central News Agency report in April. The Defense News report cited local media claims that the nation suffered 250,000 cyber attacks between 1996 and 2000.
China's People's Liberation Army is widely believed to have a special unit devoted to information warfare and computer hacking.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS