Prosecutors have decided not to press charges against two military officers who in 2017 hacked into a Ministry of National Defense Web site to test the military’s counter-cyberattack capabilities, the ministry said yesterday.
The Information Communication and Electronic Warfare Office said in a statement that it had asked the officers to try to hack the Web site as part of a drill to detect loopholes in the ministry’s firewall.
The statement came after the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that one of the officers had left the military following an investigation into the breach.
The newspaper reported that the two officers, surnamed Huang (黃) and Deng (鄧), were accused of hacking into the Web site of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Personnel during the military’s annual Han Kuang exercises.
They were then able to obtain the passwords of then-minister of national defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) and then-chief of general staff admiral Lee Hsi-ming (李喜明).
When it was discovered that Feng’s and Lee’s credentials had been compromised, the office reported the hack to the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau, not knowing that it was part of the drill, the report said.
Last year, Huang and Deng told investigators that they had been ordered to hack the Web site as part of the drill, the newspaper reported.
The bureau turned the case over to the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office, which decided not to press charges after the ministry confirmed that the officers had breached the site as part of their duties, the report said.
Huang later filed for early discharge from the military, it added.
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