Protective measures are to be implemented this month in the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command, including pseudonyms for personnel, and improving internal and external information control, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said yesterday.
China’s Guangzhou City Public Security Bureau on Thursday last week said that it was offering a bounty for 20 people who work for the command for alleged cyberattacks targeting China.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office yesterday said that it would be monitoring all command personnel.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
Taiwanese military experts said that the Ministry of National Defense should reinstate the Military Service Number system, which would decouple military personnel from the national ID system.
Some suspect that a list of command personnel has been leaked to Beijing.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Mei-ling (羅美玲) said that the ease with which Chinese agencies have sourced information on personnel at the command, which should be restricted as stipulated in the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), demonstrated a lack of emphasis on information protection at the command.
Command Chief of Staff Major General Chou Wen-hisang (周文祥) said that the information the Chinese agencies released was cobbled together from public Internet sources and that two-thirds of the people on the list have retired.
In response to questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲), Chou said that the command believes the information was sourced from Facebook or job-seeking sites.
The information about personnel at the command above a certain rank is public, Koo said.
The command has measures in place to protect identities, Chou said, adding that the rights and safety of its personnel are ensured.
DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said that inaction over China’s claims would embolden China’s “long-arm jurisdiction” and legal warfare tactics.
China’s “united front” rhetoric, as well as other forms of cognitive warfare aided and abetted by pro-Chinese sympathizers in Taiwan, occurs daily, but the ministry has never considered Taiwan to be under China’s jurisdiction, a fact that must be made clear on the international stage, Koo said.
China conducts the most cyberattacks and among the ministry’s core duties is to ensure information and network safety for the military, he said, adding that the ministry would create appropriate protective measures as stipulated by the National Intelligence Services Act.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said yesterday. When Philippine forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島) on Saturday due to bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help, but later saw that the ship had been extricated, Philippine navy regional spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said. No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among
RSS