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.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS