The Executive Yuan is considering an amendment to the Principles on Limiting Harmful Products Against National Information Security Used by Government Agencies (各機關對危害國家資通安全產品限制使用原則) in response to recent Chinese cyberattacks, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
An explicit ban on all hardware and software made in China would target government agencies and companies renting equipment for critical infrastructure, the source said.
The amendment would follow Minister Without Portfolio Wu Tze-cheng (吳澤成) saying that the Executive Yuan should reprimand agencies and companies that used easily hacked equipment that led to Taiwan High Speed Rail Co’s Xinzuoying Station’s digital billboard being compromised.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Liberty Times
Shortly after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday last week, Chinese hackers obtained access to screens in 7-Eleven stores at Xinzuoying Station.
Government agencies would be required to incorporate a ban on Chinese components in suppliers’ contracts, with digital billboards and surveillance cameras the primary concerns, the source said.
The Executive Yuan on April 19, 2019, issued an administrative order for agencies to conduct an equipment inventory for China-made products, the person said.
As of Dec. 18, 2020, the Executive Yuan notified all governmental agencies that it had banned the use of all Chinese brands.
The agencies were ordered to have all Chinese-made equipment used internally and by subcontractors replaced by the end of last year, the source said.
The amendment would address the gaps that allowed compromised digital billboards to be rented by companies operating parts of the nation’s infrastructure, the person said.
The cyberattack demonstrated the potential for malicious spreading of inappropriate messages in public locations, prompting the Executive Yuan’s National Center for Cyber Security Technology to push for the amendment, the source said.
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