There is no evidence that three current and former employees stole data amid a probe launched by prosecutors into the National Health Insurance (NHI) system, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) said yesterday.
The suspects — an NHIA division chief surnamed Hsieh (謝), an NHIA employee surnamed Lee (李) and a retired NHIA chief secretary surnamed Yeh (葉) — are being investigated for allegedly collecting and leaking the personal data of government officials responsible for national security affairs.
Due to the nature of their work, Hsieh and Lee have used their clearance to search and look for the personal data of multiple people stored on the NHI system for more than a decade, the administration said.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
During this period, records show that the two logged into the system to search for 133,000 and 35,000 entries respectively, but no evidence was found that indicated they collected and leaked such data, it said.
Yeh never had access to the system when he was employed at the NHIA and therefore there is no record of him searching any data, it said, following an internal administrative inquiry launched separately by the NHIA in the wake of the probe.
All three were brought to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning early last week in relation to alleged breaches of the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法).
The investigation was initiated after prosecutors received a tip-off that Hsieh and Lee allegedly used their clearance as NHIA employees to collect and leak the personal data of government officials responsible for national security affairs from 2009 to last year.
Yeh is alleged to have instructed the other two to steal the information over a 13-year period, prosecutors said.
A preliminary investigation by prosecutors found that Lee logged into the NHI system on multiple occasions to look for personal data belonging to officials from the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the National Police Agency and intelligence officers in national security agencies.
Hsieh searched about 100,000 personal entries of people stored in the NHI system between Aug. 3 and Aug. 8 in 2018, said Tsai Hsiu-ching (蔡秀卿), director of the NHIA’s ethics office.
However, the NHIA was aware of Hsieh’s activity during this period, likely for the purpose of statistical analysis, and not deliberately targeting officers working in national security agencies, Tsai said.
There is no evidence that these data were copied onto an external storage drive, she said, adding that the information gathered would be provided to prosecutors to aid their investigation.
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
‘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
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
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
RSS