Chinese cyberattacks on Taiwan persist even as ties across the Taiwan Strait have improved, the head of Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology said yesterday.
Chinese hackers attack Taiwan on almost a daily basis, in part to steal confidential information on the government’s bottom line in cross-strait negotiations, Minister of Science Simon Chang (張善政) said during an interview with a local radio station.
Taiwan has also become a testing ground for Chinese hackers to experiment with new hacking technologies, he said.
Although cross-strait ties appear to have improved, there is a major cyberattack by Chinese hackers once every few months, with the perpetrators hoping to crash Taiwanese Web sites and steal information, he said.
Chang, who is also the Cabinet’s chief information officer, was responding to questions on the nation’s information security.
Meanwhile, addressing the gas pipeline explosions in Greater Kaohsiung reportedly caused by a leaky propene pipeline, Chang said that a task force should be set up to collect and compile information on underground pipelines so that the information is easily accessible to governments at every level.
The blasts on July 31 and Aug. 1, which left 30 people dead and 310 injured, drew attention to the issue of underground petrochemical pipes in highly populated parts of the city, which is the hub of the nation’s petrochemical industry.
Chang said the petrochemical industry has only a 17 percent profit margin, compared with 40 percent in Singapore, and companies in the sector need to realize that costs will only go up in the future given rising environmental awareness.
The companies should pay greater attention to operational safety and maintain a good relationship with residents in the neighborhoods near their factories, Chang said, adding that the ministry was ready to help producers develop innovative techniques to add value.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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