A spate of cyberattacks originating from China could be preparations for an attempt to paralyze Taiwan’s key computer systems and public infrastructure to disrupt the inauguration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and vice president-elect William Lai (賴清德) on May 20, Ministry of National Defense officials and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said yesterday.
Wang told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee in Taipei that he has learned China was behind a spate of malware attacks this week that aimed to disable the computer system at Taiwan’s two major oil suppliers — state-owned CPC Corp, Taiwan and privately owned Formosa Petrochemical Corp — as well as IC testing and packaging firm Powertech Technology and some financial companies.
He cautioned Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) and other ministry officials that the malicious attacks have been increasing in the past few weeks and that China would mount more coordinated attacks for a major escalation in the coming days to cause major disruptions or paralyze computer networks on May 20.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Communication, Electronics and Information Tsao Chin-ping (曹進平) said that cyberattacks targeting the Web sites of government agencies or state-run companies could intensify in the buildup to the inauguration.
“The Chinese cyberarmy’s intrusion channels into these computer systems came through mobile storage devices and social media platforms. Our military units will bolster cybersecurity measures to defend against these types of hacking,” Tsao said.
National Security Bureau officials yesterday identified the sources of the cyberattacks as China and Russia.
These were likely coordinated cyberattacks and test runs by China to sabotage the presidential inauguration, they said.
China might be planning to paralyze Taiwan’s key government computer systems, impair its power supply and state utilities, and disable other major public infrastructure, the officials said.
An initial probe found that the hackers used Internet protocol addresses registered in Europe as springboards to implant backdoor programs and malware into servers at Taiwan’s health agencies, medical research centers and Centers for Disease Control offices to steal critical information and files, they said.
Wang also pointed to evidence indicating that Chinese cyberarmy units have targeted Taiwanese health agencies and medical research institutes working on a COVID-19 vaccine, adding that they have also targeted similar entities in the US.
China appears to have built mockups of a port in northeastern Taiwan and a military vessel docked there, with the aim of using them as targets to test its ballistic missiles, a retired naval officer said yesterday. Lu Li-shih (呂禮詩), a former lieutenant commander in Taiwan’s navy, wrote on Facebook that satellite images appeared to show simulated targets in a desert in China’s Xinjiang region that resemble the Suao naval base in Yilan County and a Kidd-class destroyer that usually docks there. Lu said he compared the mockup port to US naval bases in Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan, and in Subic Bay
The majority of parents surveyed in northern Taiwan favor the suspension of all on-site classes at schools from the junior-high level and below amid a surge in domestic COVID-19 infections, parent groups said yesterday. About 84.4 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,912 parents in northern Taiwan, where the outbreak is the most serious, said they supported suspending classes, the Action Alliance on Basic Education, the Taiwan Parents Protect Women and Children Association, and the Taiwan Love Children Association said. The groups distributed questionnaires to parents in New Taipei City, Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu city and county from Saturday morning
ASEAN BATTLEGROUND: Japan and Australia could be drawn into Pacific tensions as China sets its sights on the Diaoyutai Islands and further beyond the first island chain Tensions between China and the US in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to intensify, the National Security Bureau and Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, recommending that Taiwan continue to emphasize its shared values and interests to encourage resistance to Chinese aggression. US commitments in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to continue unabated despite the war in Ukraine, as Beijing takes advantage of the conflict to expand its influence in the region, the agencies said in reports delivered to the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Sunday, ahead of a hearing yesterday on regional developments and trends. Although Russia’s invasion of
ONLINE REPORT: Confirmed cases filling out the online contact tracing report can check a box to indicate that a close contact had received a booster dose, an official said The guidelines for diagnosing COVID-19 have been revised to include people aged 65 or older who test positive with a rapid test that is confirmed by a healthcare worker, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported 65,794 new local infections. The CECC had first announced the change on Monday, before publishing the new guidelines. Starting today, people aged 65 or older, regardless of whether they are undergoing home quarantine, home isolation or self-disease prevention, can be classified as a confirmed COVID-19 case by a healthcare professional, based on a positive result from an antigen rapid test, said
RSS