Personal information collected by the Bureau of Consular Affairs from Taiwanese traveling abroad and sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs overseas offices in e-mails might have been hacked, after irregularities were found in the bureau’s e-mail system, the ministry said yesterday.
Bureau Deputy Director-General Winston Chung (鍾文正) told a news briefing at the ministry in Taipei that security checks found irregularities and that the system might have been hacked.
About 15,000 records collected by the bureau could have been accessed by hackers over the past three months, Chung said.
The bureau has taken measures to bolster information security and an initial check found that the hacking occurred between the bureau and the overseas offices, Chung said.
The e-mail system is used to send data on Taiwanese traveling abroad so that consular services can have quicker access to information the event of an emergency.
To register for the service, travelers have to give their name, birth date, national ID number, passport number, e-mail address and emergency contacts.
The motive behind the alleged hack is still unclear, and those who have applied for the service should change their e-mail passwords as soon as possible and contact the bureau, Chung said, adding that the bureau has formed a task force to deal with the incident.
The bureau is also considering whether to limit the information required to apply for the service to just passport numbers, mobile phone numbers and e-mail accounts, a source said.
The bureau’s host computer has not been hacked, the ministry said, adding that there are no safety concerns and no personal data leaks from the passport and visa systems.
Lawmakers criticized the ministry over the incident.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) said that the ministry should apologize and hold those responsible to account, while Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus convener Sufin Siluko (廖國棟) said the incident should not have happened and that the ministry should review its procedures to identify any possible problems with the e-mail system.
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