The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Web site has come under attack from cyberspies seeking to profile visitors to the site, part of a campaign to get information about the party’s policies following its election victory in January, according to a US cybersecurity researcher.
On at least two separate occasions in April, the DPP’s Web site redirected visitors to a spoof online address that hosted a malicious script. That script likely profiled them and selected candidates for additional cyberattacks, according to research by security company FireEye Inc, which said in a statement it had not attributed the operation to a specific group.
FireEye said that it had previously detected China-based cyberespionage groups using the spoof Web site tool and that its use against Taiwanese political targets suggests the actors behind the DPP attacks are supported by Chinese sponsors.
“Taiwan’s public and private sector need to bring together the technology, expertise and threat intelligence to detect and then respond to advanced cyberattacks,” said Michael Chue, general manager for the Greater China region at FireEye.
The DPP’s site was first compromised on April 7 and its administrators appeared to fix it on April 8, according to FireEye.
On April 13, it came under attack again, suggesting “a threat group might be continually monitoring the site due to its importance as a strategic espionage target,” FireEye said.
The attack was again repelled, it added.
FireEye said it expects a sustained hacking campaign against DPP politicians and associated organizations.
It is probable that international non-governmental organizations, diplomatic agencies and other global entities could also be affected by this campaign, it said.
DPP spokesman Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) declined to comment on the April incidents reported by FireEye, but said that the party’s Web site has not experienced any “major systematic attacks” recently.
The DPP is not a customer of FireEye’s, he said.
FireEye said its intelligence team noticed the compromised Web site and that the company had not been hired by the DPP to investigate the attacks.
The DPP, along with local news organizations, came under attack in the lead-up to January’s elections, FireEye said in December last year.
Individual party members also said they had evidence that their e-mail accounts had been hacked.
FireEye, based in California, provides malware and network-threat protection systems. After its Mandiant division alleged in 2013 that China’s military might be behind a group that hacked at least 141 companies worldwide since 2006, the US issued indictments against five military officials who were purported to be members of that group.
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