Beijing’s cognitive warfare tactics against Taiwan are becoming more sophisticated, with hackers targeting network devices to spread disinformation as next year’s presidential and legislative elections near, prosecutors and judicial authorities said, adding that several hacks targeting Taiwanese had been traced to Hong Kong.
Cognitive warfare tactics against Taiwan are constantly evolving, from disseminating disinformation through crude messages using simplified Chinese characters and Chinese slang during the COVID-19 pandemic to spreading false news through nearly 1,500 social media accounts during the run-up to last year’s local elections, sources familiar with the matter said.
This year, foreign forces have shifted their methods, hacking Internet of Things (IoT) devices in Taiwan that use weak passwords to spread disinformation as though it was coming from a Taiwanese, the sources said.
Photo: REUTERS
The hackers seek to publish messages through a target’s social media account after gaining control of their devices, and then delete connection records to try to hide the origin of the poster, they said.
The actions are an attempt to divide Taiwan from within to intensify political conflicts, they said.
Investigators looking into the hacking cases said that Hong Kong has become an important base for launching cyberattacks against Taiwan, as major recent disinformation campaigns have been found to have originated in Hong Kong.
For example, online posts saying that officials had smuggled cigarettes during the president’s trip to Central America in April came from a hacked router in a motel in Kaohsiung, the Cyber Security Investigation Office said.
Using an Internet protocol address in Hong Kong, a hacker logged into a Facebook account they created and took control of two accounts of Taiwanese on the Mobile01.com Web site, and used the three accounts to make posts showing altered cigarette purchase orders, it said.
Although the hacker deleted their connection records, authorities traced the posts on the three Taiwanese accounts to the router, prosecutors and judicial authorities said.
Regarding online rumors in April saying that Chinese missiles had breached Taiwan’s airspace, the Cyber Security Investigation Office said that those posts had also originated in Hong Kong.
A foreign actor had hacked into a router of an international shipping company in Taoyuan through a device in Hong Kong at UCloud Technology Co (優刻得), which offers colocation services for servers and network equipment, and logged into a Professional Technology Temple (PTT) bulletin board system account owned by a Taiwanese to post about the missiles, it said.
To prevent disinformation from affecting the elections, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office is heading up an investigation team focused on major national disinformation cases, while other cases are to be handled by local district prosecutors’ offices, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said.
Dedicated chief prosecutors are to be assigned by local offices in the six special municipalities to handle the cases, it added.
The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau urges people to delete unused social media accounts, update their IoT devices and use strong passwords.
People should carefully verify online information and avoid spreading it before confirming its authenticity, the bureau added.
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