A 24-year-old engineer was arrested on Friday on suspicion of cracking the EasyCard encryption system and changing the value of cards to make purchases at convenience stores, Taipei EasyCard Corp said yesterday, maintaining that its security system remains sound.
Wu Dong-lin (吳東霖) allegedly decoded the encryption of three EasyCards he had in his possession and changed the value in each of the cards to NT$9,000. The company’s information security system detected the anomaly and the company worked with police in Taipei to apprehend him after he made a purchase with an EasyCard at a convenience store.
EasyCard general manager Cheng You-chin (鄭有欽) said the company reported the situation to the police immediately after its system detected the anomaly on Sept. 10, but did not lock out the cards so that the police could trace the suspect’s location.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Before the arrest was made, the suspect allegedly made six purchases totaling NT$608 using two of the three EasyCards at convenience stores, and the loss to the company was only NT$39 after deducting the original values in the cards of NT$569, Cheng told a press conference held at the company.
Chen Kuo-wen (陳國文), a division chief at the police department, said Wu claimed he only decoded the encryption code for his EasyCards and did not collude with others.
Cheng dismissed concerns about the information security of the EasyCard system, adding that while the encryption system on the cards could be cracked, the company’s transaction security mechanism and other protection systems would serve as the gatekeeper against any acts of theft.
“The suspect did not hack into the value store-up system or copy other users’ EasyCards. We remain confident about our information security mechanisms and we can promise that all customers’ rights will be protected,” he said.
Wu’s alleged crime violated the Act on Issuance and Management of Electronic Monetary Cards (電子票證發行管理條例) and he could face a sentence of one to 10 years, or a fine of up to NT$200 million (US$6.5 million), Chen said.
EasyCards, which are used mostly for public transportation, can be used to make a purchase of up to NT$1,000 per transaction with a daily cap of NT$3,000 after the Financial Supervisory Commission approved their use as an electronic cash card beginning in April last year.
EasyCard holders can store up to NT$10,000 in value and use the card as an electronic wallet at major convenience stores and more than 10,000 shops nationwide.
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