Chinese hackers are suspected of invading the network of a Taiwanese online job bank before the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday last week and stealing the personal information of more than 5.92 million job applicants, a preliminary investigation by national security officials showed.
The information was posted for sale on the “dark Web” — Internet networks that require specific software, configurations or authorization to access — under the account name “rootkit” for US$500 to US$1,000, officials said, adding that they found the information security breach by accident during a “deep Web” search on Saturday night.
Investigators suspected that the hackers were from China, as they wrote in simplified Chinese that they succeeded in hacking into the system of a well-known online job bank in Taiwan at the end of last month and were willing to sell the stolen personal data.
In addition to file numbers, the leaked information also included job applicants’ national identification card numbers, names, genders, birthdays, e-mail addresses, landline telephone numbers, mobile phone numbers, account usernames and home addresses, the officials said.
The oldest job seeker was born in 1962, whereas the youngest was born in 2000, they added.
Given that Taiwan has a working population of 12 million people, the incident has affected close to half of them, making it potentially the severest information security breach in the country, the officials said.
The consequences would be dire if the data were exploited by the Chinese Communist Party for propaganda purposes, they added.
The officials questioned the motive behind the information security breach, as the incident happened before the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday long weekend and China’s National Day, which fell on Thursday last week, adding that they are issuing warnings and conducting a comprehensive investigation into the case.
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘LAWFUL USE’: The last time a US warship transited the Taiwan Strait was on Oct. 20 last year, and this week’s transit is the first of US President Donald Trump’s second term Two US military vessels transited the Taiwan Strait from Sunday through early yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement, the first such mission since US President Donald Trump took office last month. The two vessels sailed south through the Strait, the ministry said, adding that it closely monitored nearby airspace and waters at the time and observed nothing unusual. The ministry did not name the two vessels, but the US Navy identified them as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit from