Millions of people offline, banks knocked out and the world’s most advanced semiconductor industry paralyzed — Taiwan’s doomsday scenario includes not just invading Chinese troops but also a wave of attacks against its cyber infrastructure.
Taiwan’s security planners run simulated worst-case scenarios constantly to prepare for the day Beijing decides to try and take over.
If China does invade, officials and cybersecurity experts say it will not limit its assaults to security forces and defense infrastructure, but effectively disconnect Taiwan from the world.
Photo: AFP
Taiwan is facing a persistent threat from stealthy attackers who gain access to computer networks to “sit and wait within the victim’s infrastructure”, said Crystal Tu (杜貞儀), a cybersecurity researcher at the Institute of National Defense and Security Research.
They can be highly active during a time of conflict, Tu said, such as a “cyber operation aimed at the disruption of critical infrastructure — including telecommunications, energy and finance sectors.”
Cyberattacks have ramped up dramatically in the year leading up to the presidential and legislative elections today.
Photo: AFP
Taiwanese authorities have said government agencies face an estimated five million cyberattacks a day.
And the cybersecurity firm Fortinet reported an 80 percent increase in cyber attacks in the first half of last year — ranking Taiwan number one in Asia Pacific.
“The cyber operation toward Taiwan never really stops,” said Tu.
Some tactics used against infrastructure have been identified as techniques used by Chinese state-sponsored groups.
Last year, Microsoft flagged the threat from a group named Flax Typhoon that operates out of China and targets Taiwan.
The US tech giant said Flax Typhoon “intends to perform espionage and maintain access” to various Taiwanese organizations for as long as possible.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Cyberattackers have not only targeted the government and defense organizations, but also hit the semiconductor industry.
Taiwanese companies are crucial to the supply of chips, the lifeblood of the global economy.
Such is their importance that one former US official said last year that the US would rather destroy this semiconductor infrastructure than let it fall to invading Chinese forces.
Last year, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which controls more than half of the world’s chip output, reported a data breach at one of its suppliers.
“Taiwan is an important target because it is at the top of the critical high-tech supply chain,” said Fortinet’s Jim Liu. “Geopolitics and (China-Taiwan) relations could inevitably increase cybersecurity incidents.”
China has increased diplomatic and military pressure since 2016, when pro-status quo Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party became president, a policy that William Lai (賴清德) is expected to follow.
WORSE CASE SCENARIO
China’s increasing aggression towards Taiwan, including simulated blockades of the island, has fueled speculation among policymakers about Beijing’s potential timeline — and methods — for an invasion.
In the digital realm, officials say China could go beyond cyberattacks and effectively cut off the country from the rest of the world.
“Because Taiwan is an island, all communication with the outside world relies on undersea cables,” said Taiwan’s deputy digital minister Lee Huai-jen (李懷仁).
“The worst-case scenario is all our undersea cables are cut off.”
To prepare for that, Taiwan is looking to the sky.
Lee said that Taiwan is working with two foreign satellite service providers to collaborate with the island’s largest telecom company.
Satellite receivers will be placed in 700 spots across Taiwan “to test whether we can switch communication systems” during times of crisis, he said.
“The first thing... is to maintain the stability of the government’s command system and maintain the accuracy of the information provided” to civilians, he said.
The breakwater stretches out to sea from the sprawling Kaohsiung port in southern Taiwan. Normally, it’s crowded with massive tankers ferrying liquefied natural gas from Qatar to be stored in the bulbous white tanks that dot the shoreline. These are not normal times, though, and not a single shipment from Qatar has docked at the Yongan terminal since early March after the Strait of Hormuz was shuttered. The suspension has provided a realistic preview of a potential Chinese blockade, a move that would throttle an economy anchored by the world’s most advanced and power-hungry semiconductor industry. It is a stark reminder of
May 11 to May 17 Traversing the southern slopes of the Yushan Range in 1931, Japanese naturalist Tadao Kano knew he was approaching the last swath of Taiwan still beyond colonial control. The “vast, unknown territory,” protected by the “fierce” Bunun headman Dahu Ali, was “filled with an utterly endless jungle that choked the mountains and valleys,” Kano wrote. He noted how the group had “refused to submit to the measures of our authorities and entrenched themselves deep in these mountains … living a free existence spent chasing deer in the morning and seeking serow in the evening,” even describing them as
The last couple of weeks spectators in Taiwan and abroad have been treated to a remarkable display of infighting in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over the supplementary defense budget. The party has split into two camps, one supporting an NT$800 billion special defense budget and one supporting an NT$380 billion budget with additional funding contingent on receiving letters of acceptance (LOA) from the US. Recent media reports have said that the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) is leaning toward the latter position. President William Lai (賴清德) has proposed NT$1.25 trillion for purchases of US arms and for development of domestic weapons
As a different column was being written, the big news dropped that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) announced that negotiations within his caucus, with legislative speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT, party Chair Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chair Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) had produced a compromise special military budget proposal. On Thursday morning, prior to meeting with Cheng over a lunch of beef noodles, Lu reiterated her support for a budget of NT$800 or NT$900 billion — but refused to comment after the meeting. Right after Fu’s
RSS