China has launched new types of cyberattacks on Taiwan in recent years, with many targeting the highest levels of government, reports presented at an information security meeting earlier this week found.
“It is clear that Taiwan has been used as a ‘training ground’ by a Chinese cyberarmy to hone their skills,” Vice Premier Simon Chang (張善政) said at an Executive Yuan meeting in Taipei on Thursday.
“Many of the attacks are new types of cyberwarfare,” he said.
Chang said that Beijing has targeted the Presidential Office, Executive Yuan, Ministry of Economic Affairs and the National Development Council.
China accounts for a very high proportion of such attacks, he said.
“Taiwan must develop its information security defense program,” he said. “We have to do it on our own and not rely on other nations, because a lot of these are new types of attacks.”
Chang said it is clear that Chinese cyberwarfare was conducted before elections and political events.
From 2009 to last year, large concentrations of cyberattacks were uncovered during negotiations over the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, disputes on the cross-strait service trade agreement and the Sunflower movement’s occupation of the Legislative Yuan’s main chamber, and before last year’s nine-in-one elections.
Chang said that cyberattacks have been simulated during the armed forces’ annual exercises and national security drills.
“There is a fine line between information security and national security, so, for the first time, the government held the drills together last year,” Chang said, adding that cyberattacks by China on utility networks such as electricity grids, telecommunications systems, energy supply lines and other public infrastructure were simulated.
Information and Communication Security Technology Center head Hsiao Hsiu-chin (蕭秀琴) said that the US and some European nations have sought collaboration with Taiwan on cybersecurity programs, due to the nation’s accumulated experience in dealing with Chinese cyberwarfare.
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