Taipei City Councilor Wang Hong-wei (王鴻薇) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Friday said that excessive use of the instant messaging application Line leaves the Taipei City Government open to security risks.
Wang said that the city government’s internal use of Line groups has exploded under the administration of independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), whose use of the service is well-known.
According to statistics provided by the city’s Department of Information Technology, the city government utilizes 181 such groups. The Department of Urban Development leads city departments with 28 groups, while the mayor’s office itself has seven such groups.
Wang said the city’s extensive use of Line groups could potentially expose it to leakage of confidential information, given that anyone within the groups can add new users, enabling anybody to read group discussions.
In addition, Line groups have become a favored venue for hackers to send contaminated Web links, she said.
She said that security concerns have led the Executive Yuan to ban usage of the application, adding that the lack of clear rules covering the preservation of Line records could enable the city government to cover up evidence of wrongdoing.
While the National Archives Act (國家檔案法) specifies how many years ordinary official documents are to be saved, there are currently no similar rules for Line records, she said.
As Line servers are located abroad, there would be no recourse if evidence of wrongdoing was erased, she said.
She urged the Taipei City Government to draft clear rules governing the use of Line application groups while conducting city business and rules requiring Line records to be preserved in a similar manner to ordinary official documents.
City government Internet security concerns were highlighted last week after Ko revealed, under cross-examination by city councilors, that several mayoral office computers had been hacked by an unknown attacker.
PROCEDURE: Although there is already a cross-strait agreement in place for the extradition of criminals, ample notice is meant to be given to the other side first Ten Taiwanese who were involved in fraud-related crimes in China were extradited back to Taiwan via Kinmen County on Wednesday, four of whom are convicted fraudsters in Taiwan. The 10 people arrived via a ferry operating between Xiamen and Kinmen, also known as the “small three links.” The Kinmen County Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said that four of the 10 extradited people were convicted in Taiwan for committing fraud and contravening the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法), and were on the wanted list. They were immediately arrested upon arrival and sent to Kinmen Prison to serve their sentences following brief questioning, the office said.
Taipei and Kaohsiung have extended an open invitation to Japanese pop star Ayumi Hamasaki after Chinese authorities abruptly canceled her scheduled concert in Shanghai. Hamasaki, 47, had been slated to perform on Saturday before organizers pulled the show at the last minute, citing “force majeure,” a move widely viewed as retaliation for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remark that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could draw a military response from Tokyo. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday said the city “very much welcomes” Hamasaki’s return and would continue to “surprise” her. Hamasaki, who has a large global fan base, including
‘REGRETTABLE’: Travelers reported that Seoul’s online arrival card system lists Taiwan as ‘China (Taiwan),’ the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday urged South Korea to correct the way Taiwan is listed in its newly launched e-Arrival card system, saying the current designation downgrades the nation’s status. South Korea rolled out the online system on Feb. 24 to gradually replace paper arrival cards, which it plans to phase out by next year. Travelers must complete the electronic form up to 72 hours before entering the country. The ministry said it has received multiple complaints from Taiwanese travelers saying that the system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in dropdown menus for both “place of departure” and “next
VIGILANT: Enterovirus activity remains in the epidemic phase, with the CDC urging caregivers of infected children to be on the lookout for signs of severe illness Influenza activity is rising in neighboring countries, and, with temperatures forecast to drop this week, flu cases are expected to increase in the next two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. Hospitals reported 87,162 visits for flu-like illnesses between Nov. 23 and Saturday, which remained about the same level as the previous week, but nine deaths and 24 cases with serious flu complications were also confirmed last week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said. Flu activity reached a peak in late September before declining for eight consecutive weeks, CDC Deputy Director-General and spokesman Lin Min-cheng (林明誠)
RSS