Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday accused government agencies of negligence and dereliction of duty following reports of major personal data breaches, which they said have seriously compromised national security.
Since 2016, there have been eight major cases of personal data leaks at government agencies and state-run enterprises, they said.
“This has stoked public anger, as government officials have shown little concern and a lack of urgency in dealing with these national security breaches,” DPP Legislator Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) told a news conference at the Legislature Yuan in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
Private data breaches have occurred repeatedly, but government officials treat them on a “case-by-case” basis and have not taken concrete action to plug these leaks, DPP Legislator Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) said.
“I have yet to see any government agency take an assessment, and pinpoint the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in our personal data storage systems,” he said.
“The new Ministry of Digital Affairs should shoulder the responsibility of coordinating with judicial investigation agencies and national security units to assess the nation’s information security system, recommend ways to enhance personal data protection, and come up with a new national strategy to prevent [data leaks] and strengthen information security,” he said.
The ministry, which started operating last year, oversees the Administration for Cyber Security, whose stated aim is to boost cybersecurity defense to protect “critical information infrastructure,” implement the Cyber Security Management Act (資通安全管理法), build a resilient, secure, smart country, and connect competent authorities to expand national cybersecurity defense mechanisms, he said.
“If the ministry and the Administration for Cyber Security cannot deal with these personal data breaches, why were they established in the first place?” Hung asked.
Liu and Hung presented a list of major data leaks over the past seven years that were either an inside job by government bureaucrats or due to hackers.
They included the theft of 17,000 transaction records at state-run Chunghwa Post Mall in May 2016 by hackers based in China and 58,000 personal data files at the Ministry of Labor’s Workforce Development Agency in July that year.
An incident at the Ministry of Civil Service in June 2019 led to the leak of 200,000 civil workers’ personal files, which were put on sale on foreign Web sites, while local household registration records were placed on sale on the Darknet in May 2020, allegedly by workers in the Ministry of the Interior’s Department of Household Registration (戶政司), the lawmakers said.
These were followed by several major breaches last year — another household data leak in October from the same department, and hackers penetrating government-run Taoyuan General Hospital last month and stealing patients’ and medical personnel files, they said.
This month saw a major security breach at China Airlines, with hackers allegedly stealing the personal data of customers, including Taiwanese business leaders, politicians and celebrities.
It was followed by a major leak of the National Health Insurance data of officers at 11 national security and military agencies, they said.
It was allegedly masterminded by Yeh Feng-ming (葉逢明), a former chief secretary of the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA), working in collusion with other agency staff, with the information reportedly being passed on to Chinese intelligence officials during Yeh’s trips to China in the past 10 years, media reports said.
Investigation reports allegedly show that Yeh and his family hold more than NT$1 billion (US$32.97 million) in overseas bank accounts.
DPP Legislator Lai Pin-yu (賴品妤) said that the nation lacks independent bodies to oversee personal data protection at government agencies.
“Those bodies currently tasked with scrutinizing internal breaches and data theft are not doing their job. It is unbelievable that vast amounts of government-held private information have been stolen and sold to foreign countries,” she said.
“If this situation is not dealt with in earnest, the public would lose faith in the government,” she said.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS