The government is stepping up measures against Chinese cyberattacks across eight core industries, data archives and medical facility Web sites, ahead of the May 20 presidential inauguration, the Executive Yuan said yesterday.
The Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday warned that the attacks might increase in frequency and intensity as the inauguration draws closer.
Such attacks were not out of the ordinary, Executive Yuan spokesperson Kolas Yotaka said yesterday.
The Executive Yuan has set up task forces to monitor aberrant Internet behavior on important holidays, special events such as the inauguration ceremony, the tax season, consecutive holidays and elections, Kolas said.
It recently established the usual May 20 inauguration task force and would be closely monitoring the energy, finance and transportation sectors, as well as keeping an eye on the Web sites of the central government, local governments and hospitals.
An unnamed senior Executive Yuan official said on condition of anonymity that while there was as yet no large-scale attack, the Cabinet is carefully monitoring Internet activity relating to the medical industry and data archives.
As the nation is considering possible international collaborations on information security with the Czech Republic and the US, Taiwan must be especially careful.
Cyberattacks against the Czech Brno University Hospital and the US Department of Health and Human Services were carried out in March, delaying the hospital’s COVID-19 screening for several patients and crashing the US agency’s Web site.
The Executive Yuan has asked the Ministry of Health and Welfare to step up information security for Internet access of medical facilities, offering the assistance of its National Center for Cyber Security Technology.
It dismissed reports that the e-mail account passwords of 70 Centers for Disease Control employees had been hacked, saying that it was a case dating back to 2017.
Separately, addressing questions about intensifying cyberattacks in the runup to May 20, National Security Bureau Director-General Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said that he did not think anything “special” would happen before the inauguration.
Chiu appears to have turned more conservative after being questioned by lawmakers about his answer to questions about the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Chiu had told lawmakers that intelligence suggested that Kim was ill, but remained in control.
Kim on Friday attended the opening ceremony for the Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Factory the day after, breaking nearly three weeks of silence and absence.
Additional reporting by CNA
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