A US Department of Justice indictment against Chinese hackers serves as an exemplary model and a solid foundation on which closer US-Taiwan collaboration could be pursued, Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) Director-General Leu Wen-jong (呂文忠) said yesterday.
Leu made the remarks at a news conference where FBI liaison to Taiwan Nicholas Garcia told reporters that the US would continue to collaborate with Taiwan.
The US Department of Justice on Wednesday charged five Chinese nationals with working with the Chinese government to target companies developing vaccines for COVID-19, and with stealing hundreds of millions of dollars of intellectual property and trade secrets from companies worldwide, as well as money laundering and identity theft.
Photo: CNA
The five — Jiang Lizhi (蔣立志), Zhang Haoran (張浩然), Tan Dailin (譚戴林), Qian Chuan (錢川) and Fu Qiang (付強) — were part of a Chinese hacker group designated as Advanced Persistent Threat 41, or APT41, the indictment says.
In May, CPC Corp, Taiwan (中油), Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) and Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) were hacked, and an MJIB investigation traced the hacker group to China, Leu said, adding that it informed the US of the incident, as the hackers had routed their IP address through a cloud server based in California.
Using information provided by the MJIB, the FBI analyzed and tracked IP addresses used to conduct command-and-control actions and suspected that Sichuan-based APT41, comprised of current or former employees of Chengdu 404 Network Technology, a Chinese company, had initiated the attack, Leu said.
The FBI considers the group to have close links with the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
Jiang, Qian and Fu operated undercover as Chengdu 404 employees, while Zhang and Tan worked independently to target high-tech firms and gaming companies, Leu said.
The MJIB’s investigative efforts overseas frequently encounter obstacles and this case could serve as an exemplary collaboration on which other US-Taiwan investigations could be built, allowing the MJIB to fulfill its duties as the nation’s bulwark against cybercrime, Leu said.
Speaking on behalf of the US, Garcia said that hackers targeting key facilities and intellectual property are a global threat and that the FBI thanks the MJIB for providing critical information that led it to crack the case.
Garcia quoted FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich as saying during a US Department of Justice conference on Wednesday: “Cyberthreats are not a problem that any one agency can address by itself — so, central to our strategy is the role the FBI plays as an indispensable partner to our federal counterparts.”
The FBI would continue to work with trustworthy partners, such as the MJIB, Garcia added.
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
GLOBAL PROJECT: Underseas cables ‘are the nervous system of democratic connectivity,’ which is under stress, Member of the European Parliament Rihards Kols said The government yesterday launched an initiative to promote global cooperation on improved security of undersea cables, following reported disruptions of such cables near Taiwan and around the world. The Management Initiative on International Undersea Cables aims to “bring together stakeholders, align standards, promote best practices and turn shared concerns into beneficial cooperation,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said at a seminar in Taipei. The project would be known as “RISK,” an acronym for risk mitigation, information sharing, systemic reform and knowledge building, he said at the seminar, titled “Taiwan-Europe Subsea Cable Security Cooperation Forum.” Taiwan sits at a vital junction on
LONG-HELD POSITION: Washington has repeatedly and clearly reiterated its support for Taiwan and its long-term policy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday said that Taiwan should not be concerned about being used as a bargaining chip in the ongoing US-China trade talks. “I don’t think you’re going to see some trade deal where, if what people are worried about is, we’re going to get some trade deal or we’re going to get favorable treatment on trade in exchange for walking away from Taiwan,” Rubio told reporters aboard his airplane traveling between Israel and Qatar en route to Asia. “No one is contemplating that,” Reuters quoted Rubio as saying. A US Treasury spokesman yesterday told reporters
RSS