China-affiliated cyberattacks against Taiwan jumped in the 24 hours before Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 13, a report released on Tuesday by US cybersecurity firm Trellix found.
The report titled Cyberattack on Democracy: Escalating Cyber Threats Immediately Ahead of Taiwan’s 2024 Presidential Election said that malicious cyberactivity targeting Taiwan had jumped from 1,758 detections on Jan. 11 to more than 4,300 on Jan. 12.
The reason behind the activity and its success remains to be determined, the report said.
Photo: Reuters
Most of the attacks focused on internal communications in government offices, police department networks across Taiwan, and billing and insurance information from financial institutes, the report said.
The activity dropped noticeably to just more than 1,000 detections on election day, it said.
Trellix manager of intelligence analysis Anne An, who wrote the report, told Voice of America: “We see a lot of Chinese APTs [advanced persistent threat actors] that, after they get in, they stay low, maintain persistence... We don’t see this crazy spike.”
“The pattern of the attack is unusual,” she added.
An told Voice of America that Trellix is still looking into the issue, adding that a possible explanation was that Chinese threat actors were desperate to find any means possible to influence the elections at the last moment.
The Trellix report said that the surge in attacks the day before the elections are likely only part of China’s long-term strategy to threaten and attack Taiwan.
Separately, the European External Action Service (EEAS) on Jan. 23 released its 2nd EEAS Report on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Threats report indicating that China was behind a slew of disinformation campaigns to drive a wedge between the US and Taiwan.
EEAS spokesman Peter Stano on Tuesday last week said that one attempt to slander outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) involved a 300-page electronic book published on X and other Web sites.
On April 6 last year, China’s state-run Global Times published illustrations insinuating that the US was using Tsai as a pawn, walking her toward a cliff, the report said, adding that the illustrations were later disseminated via social media.
Another article by state-run Chinese agencies falsely claimed that 30 Taiwanese political groups protested Tsai’s visit to the US, it said.
While the report said that it found very little use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology among the 750 incidents it reviewed, Taiwan AI Labs (台灣人工智慧實驗室) in January issued an analytic report saying that generative AI and large language models are being used heavily in disinformation campaigns.
WARNING: People in coastal areas need to beware of heavy swells and strong winds, and those in mountainous areas should brace for heavy rain, the CWA said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued sea and land warnings for Typhoon Ragasa, forecasting that it would continue to intensify and affect the nation the most today and tomorrow. People in Hualien and Taitung counties, and mountainous areas in Yilan and Pingtung counties, should brace for damage caused by extremely heavy rain brought by the typhoon’s outer rim, as it was upgraded to a super typhoon yesterday morning, the CWA said. As of 5:30pm yesterday, the storm’s center was about 630km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving northwest at 21kph, and its maximum wind speed had reached
MATAIAN RIVER: Rescue operations were ongoing, with officials urging residents to move to higher floors where possible as teams focus first on those at ground level Floodwaters from the overflowing Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) barrier lake swept into Hualien County’s Guangfu Township (光復) yesterday afternoon, leaving hundreds of people trapped and three missing as of press time last night, the Hualien County Fire Bureau said. The waters surged into downtown Guangfu after the riverbank burst at about 2:50pm, carrying mud and debris and submerging streets to rooftop level in some areas. Residents were seen climbing onto vehicles and rooftops to await rescue as thick, silt-laden water inundated the town. The surge destroyed the Mataian Bridge (馬太鞍溪橋) and flooded the Guangfu Railway Station. Rescue operations were launched with support from fire departments
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said that it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Ragasa this morning and a land warning at night as it approached Taiwan. Ragasa intensified from a tropical storm into a typhoon at 8am yesterday, the CWA said, adding that at 2pm, it was about 1,110km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip. The typhoon was moving northwest at 13kph, with sustained winds of up to 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA Web site showed. Forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said that Ragasa was projected to strengthen as it neared the Bashi Channel, with its 200km
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hualien and Taitung counties declared today a typhoon day, while schools and offices in parts of Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties are also to close Typhoon Ragasa was forecast to hit its peak strength and come closest to Taiwan from yesterday afternoon through today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Taiwan proper could be out of the typhoon’s radius by midday and the sea warning might be lifted tonight, it added. CWA senior weather specialist Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said that Ragasa’s radius had reached the Hengchun Peninsula by 11am yesterday and was expected to hit Taitung County and Kaohsiung by yesterday evening. Ragasa was forecast to move to Taiwan’s southern offshore areas last night and to its southwestern offshore areas early today, she added. As of 8pm last night,
RSS