The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two employees and an outside contractor of Radio Taiwan International (RTI) for allegedly launching a cyberattack against the radio station’s Web site in September.
Prosecutors denounced that Wu and Yue’s actions, such as replacing the website banner with the People’s Republic of China flag, would provoke cross-strait tensions, and therefore sought a penalty of up to three years imprisonment.
The suspects include engineer Wu Cheng-hsun (吳政勳), his manager, Yueh Chao-chu (岳昭莒), and Huang Fu-lin (黃富琳), who worked as a systems maintenance contractor for RTI, the indictment document said.
Photo: Wu Sheng-ju, Taipei Times
Prosecutors said the men planned cyberattacks against RTI in June, with Wu giving Huang an account with the highest level of access so Huang could provide technical support and delete records of Wu’s activities on the Web site.
Yueh, who was informed by Wu about his actions, did not intervene nor report them to his superiors.
Wu on Aug. 20 interfered with the parameters of the RTI Web site, changed its Japanese main page so that it showed simplified Chinese or garbled characters, and interrupted the Web site’s signal, prosecutors said.
On Sept. 11, 18, 19 and 20 he allegedly changed RTI’s main site and replaced the Web site with the cover of the book Retaking the Mainland by the Taiwanese Government: The Concept of Chinese Unification by the ROC, and changed the banner to the flags of the People’s Republic of China and the US.
After being questioned on Sept. 26, he logged onto the RTI Web site and disrupted its functions, showing no signs of remorse, prosecutors said.
Wu and Yueh claimed they acted because they suspected Chinese capital was interfering with the RTI Web site, prosecutors said.
Wu’s actions damaged RTI’s credibility and disrupted its operations, prosecutors said, while local media reported that Wu claimed that he did so to identify loopholes in the broadcaster’s system.
The images that Wu put on the Web site raised tensions across the Taiwan Strait, posing a danger far greater than a general criminal offense, prosecutors said.
Wu’s plan to attack the site on Oct. 10, Double Ten National Day, carried great symbolic meaning, they said.
As the only government-run radio station broadcasting to the international community, RTI is classified as level A key infrastructure according to the Regulations on Classification of Cyber Security Responsibility Levels (資通安全責任等級分級辦法), prosecutors said.
RTI said that its personnel review committee last month decided to fire Wu and issue a major demerit to Yueh for his supervisory misjudgement.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS