The hacker responsible for illegally accessing MacKay Memorial Hospital’s systems and trying to sell patients’ personal information after a failed ransom attempt is a Chinese national named Lo Chengyu (羅政宇), residing in China’s Zhejiang Province, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said yesterday.
The bureau said it has forwarded the case to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday and has issued a wanted notice for Lo.
Lo is accused of contravening articles 346, 359 and 360 of the Criminal Code and the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法).
Photo: AP
Lo’s wanted status makes him the first Chinese hacker who Taiwanese authorities have identified.
MacKay Memorial Hospital was attacked on Feb. 6 by ransomware uploaded by Lo, who went by the pseudonym of Crazyhunter, the bureau’s High-Tech Crime Center Director-General Rufus Lin (林建隆) said.
Lo demanded a ransom of US$100,000, which the hospital refused, Lin said.
The hacker then put the personal information of about 16.6 million hospital patients on sale on Feb. 28, which prompted the hospital to report the hacking to the Taipei City Police Department’s Zhongshan Precinct, Lin said.
The case was jointly investigated by the Taipei City Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division and the center, Lin said.
Investigators found that 11 establishments had been targeted in cybercrime cases in the past two months, and the malware coding and methods were similar, Lin said.
Police traced the Internet protocols from these cases to Lo, a 20-year-old Zhejiang resident working at an Internet security firm, he said.
Lo had demanded a total of US$800,000 to US$2.5 million from all establishments and received at least US$1 million in illegal proceeds, the bureau said.
Lo’s actions undermined Taiwan’s social order, and his demand for ransom was a psychological threat to Taiwanese, it said.
Additional reporting by Chiu Chun-fu
RESTRAINTS: Should China’s actions pose any threat to Taiwan’s security, economic or social systems, China would be excluded from major financial institutions, the bill says The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the PROTECT Taiwan Act, which states that Washington would exclude China from participating in major global financial organizations if its actions directly threaten Taiwan’s security. The bill, proposed by Republican Representative Frank Lucas, passed with 395 votes in favor and two against. It stipulates that if China’s actions pose any threat to Taiwan’s security, economic or social systems, the US would, “to the maximum extent practicable,” exclude Beijing from international financial institutions, including the G20, the Bank for International Settlements and the Financial Stability Board. The bill makes it clear that China must be prepared
PEACE AT LAST? UN experts had warned of threats and attacks ahead of the voting, but after a turbulent period, Bangladesh has seemingly reacted to the result with calm The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) yesterday celebrated a landslide victory in the first elections held since a deadly 2024 uprising, with party leader Tarique Rahman to become prime minister. Bangladesh Election Commission figures showed that the BNP alliance had won 212 seats, compared with 77 for the Islamist-led Jamaat-e-Islami alliance. The US embassy congratulated Rahman and the BNP for a “historic victory,” while India praised Rahman’s “decisive win” in a significant step after recent rocky relations with Bangladesh. China and Pakistan, which grew closer to Bangladesh since the uprising and the souring of ties with India, where ousted Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina
FAST-TRACK: The deal is to be sent to the legislature, but time is of the essence, as Trump had raised tariffs on Seoul when it failed to quickly ratify a similar pact Taiwan and the US on Thursday signed a trade agreement that caps US tariffs on Taiwanese goods at 15 percent and provides preferential market access for US industrial and agricultural exports, including cars, and beef and pork products. The Taiwan-US Agreement on Reciprocal Trade confirms a 15 percent US tariff for Taiwanese goods, and grants Taiwanese semiconductors and related products the most-favorable-treatment under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, the Executive Yuan said. In addition, 2,072 items — representing nearly 20 percent of Taiwan’s total exports to the US — would be exempt from additional tariffs and be subject only to
The Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) yesterday released the first images from its Formosat-8A satellite, featuring high-resolution views of Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), Tainan’s Anping District (安平), Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor (興達港), Japan’s National Stadium in Tokyo and Barcelona airport. Formosat-8A, named the “Chi Po-lin Satellite” after the late Taiwanese documentary filmmaker Chi Po-lin (齊柏林), was launched on Nov. 29 last year. It is designed to capture images at a 1m resolution, which can be sharpened to 0.7m after processing, surpassing the capabilities of its predecessor, Formosat-5, the agency said. It is the first of TASA’s eight-satellite Formosat-8 constellation to be sent into orbit and
RSS