A Chinese national has been identified as the person who sent a series of bomb threats to Taiwanese officials over the past few months, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said yesterday.
Although the person used a virtual private network (VPN) to mask their online trail, the High-tech Crime Center identified an IP address in Xian in China’s Shaanxi Province, center chief Rufus Lin (林建隆) said.
“The perpetrator at various times used VPN servers in Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the US and China to make it appear as though their IP address was in those countries,” Lin said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Since October last year, the perpetrator has targeted ministries, elected representatives, transportation hubs and tourist sites in Taiwan with e-mailed bomb threats or threats of violence against the recipients, he said.
At least seven legislators from the Democratic Progressive Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) received the e-mails, he said.
“The perpetrator spoofed the identities of Taiwanese politicians, ministers or other prominent personalities in the ‘from’ field of the e-mails to boost the chances that they would be opened,” Lin said, adding that they mainly used Gmail and Outlook accounts.
“Our investigators traced the perpetrator’s digital footprint through analysis of their e-mail usage, social media accounts and browsing history,” he said.
“We compared VPN usage, and recurrent word and sentence patterns to conclude with high certainty that the e-mailed threats were all from the same person,” he added.
This was criminal action aimed at instilling fear and anxiety in society, Lin said, adding that the bureau has contacted Chinese authorities to help with the case according to the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement (兩岸共同打擊犯罪及司法互助協議).
Bureau officials said that bomb squads swiftly coordinated with police investigators and forensic experts to sweep areas that were targeted in the e-mails, while police patrols were enhanced.
“Up to now, we have not found find any explosives or suspicious items in these places,” the officials said. “We can assure the general safety of the people who were targeted, as well as the public.”
“There is no need to fear,” they said.
Separately, Minister of the Interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) told lawmakers that Taiwan is a democratic country with rule of law, and it would not permit threats of harm against its elected officials.
“Police agencies have boosted security work to protect legislators and ensure their personal safety, including in the legislature and their offices,” he said at the legislature in Taipei.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS