Cyberattacks from China on government computers are becoming more difficult to detect, as hackers increasingly use online platforms, such as search engines, to break into systems, a source close to government discussions said.
While the frequency of attacks by China’s cyberarmy has declined, the success rate of such incursions is rising, the source said.
“Taiwan’s official departments suffer from hundreds of successful Internet attacks each year, more than half of which come from assaults by China’s cyberarmy,” said the person, who is not authorized to speak to the media and declined to be identified.
China has denied accusations of engaging in cyberwarfare or hacking and has said that it is itself one of the world’s biggest victims of such incidents.
Neither China’s Taiwan Affairs Office nor the Chinese Cyberspace Administration immediately responded to a request for comment.
The alleged cyberattacks come as Beijing has been increasing diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan.
The source said hackers are adopting new techniques to conceal their activities.
“They frequently go through online platforms such as Google and blogs to hide and give investigators the impression that they are a normal platform or tool so that the investigators ignore background actions,” the person said.
Government agencies face “frequent cyberattacks and scanning of their vulnerabilities, with the attack volume reaching 10 million a month,” the source said.
Most attacks targeted non-core service systems, were low-level in nature and included activities such as changing Web sites and tampering with information, but there have also been more serious attacks on core systems, they said.
The government has evidence that some of the attacks targeted agencies and their Web sites by intruding into servers and stealing account passwords, the source added.
The nation’s representative offices abroad have also been targeted using methods such as taking screen snapshots, keylogging and unpacking related information, the source said.
Since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in 2016, China’s hostility toward Taiwan has increased. Analysts expect cyberattacks will continue to cause a headache for the government.
“Taiwan has very good cyberdefense and investigation skills and capacity. However, under such a huge number of attacks and the special relationship across the Strait, it is really difficult to prevent 100 percent of the attacks,” said Lennon Chang, a senior lecturer in criminology at Monash University in Melbourne.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS