Taiwanese organized crime, illegal money lenders, temples and civic groups are complicit in Beijing’s infiltration of the armed forces, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a report yesterday.
Retired service members who had been turned to Beijing’s cause mainly relied on those channels to infiltrate the Taiwanese military, according to the report to be submitted to lawmakers ahead of tomorrow’s hearing on Chinese espionage in the military.
Chinese intelligence typically used blackmail, Internet-based communications, bribery or debts to loan sharks to leverage active service personnel to do its bidding, it said.
Photo: Reuters
China’s main goals are to collect intelligence, and develop a network of spies and collaborators capable of undermining Taiwan’s defense, the ministry said.
Counterintelligence training has been effective, as 87.5 percent of apprehended Chinese agents were spies reported to the authorities by service members they had tried to lure, the report said.
The Ministry of National Defense, as well as the National Security Bureau and other agencies of the Ministry of Justice, have established special protocols to investigate and prosecute Chinese agents without compromising national security secrets, it said.
The military is creating a standardized system for investigating information security breaches, and certifying personnel and contractors, to protect the armed forces from infiltration, it added.
The military vets service members by examining disciplinary infractions, crime records, travel history, family and finances before granting them access to classified information, it said, adding that background check results are archived digitally for reference in promotions or assignments.
Military personnel are also vetted once every three years and those who fail to meet standards would be removed from secret projects they no longer have clearance for, the report said.
A service member must undergo a separate vetting process if they are reassigned to a position that requires a higher security clearance, the report added.
In other news, a monthly report by the Ministry of Digital Affairs said Taiwan was subjected to 82 cyberattacks last month, a slight decrease from the number of attacks in the same month last year.
The Administration for Cyber Security said that more than 20 government offices were hit by distributed denial of service attacks that slowed down or disrupted Internet service, adding that local governments, tax offices, justice systems, social welfare and public health services bore 30 percent of those attacks.
Authorities were unable to positively identify the attackers due to the use of intermediaries, it said.
None of the cyberattacks damaged the targeted systems and most government offices quickly recovered from the attacks, the agency said.
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