Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) yesterday called for a swift response in the wake of a data leak confirmed by the Ministry of National Defense.
After local news channel TVBS reported that telecom giant Chunghwa Telecom had been hacked, the ministry on Friday confirmed that hackers stole “sensitive information” including military and government documents from the nation’s largest telecom company and sold it on the “dark Web.”
The TVBS report included a screenshot of a post in which the alleged hackers announced they were “selling Chunghwa Telecom 1.7 TeraBytes of data” that included government contracts.
Photo: Reuters
“The initial analysis of this case is that hackers obtained Chunghwa Telecom’s sensitive information and sold it on the dark Web, including documents from the armed forces, foreign affairs ministry, coast guard and other units,” the ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Taiwan is one of the world’s top targets for cybersecurity attacks, according to digital data experts.
Some have suggested that tactics employed against Taiwanese infrastructure bear the hallmarks of Chinese state-sponsored groups.
An air force contract included in the Chunghwa leak was not considered confidential information, the ministry said.
Correspondence between the navy and Chunghwa also contained no classified information, it said.
“We have asked the contractor involved to enhance its information security controls to prevent any further incidents,” it said.
Neither the ministry statement nor the TVBS report identified the hackers or said where they were located.
The most pressing task is to find out what was leaked and step up risk controls, Chen said.
Chen suggested launching independent investigations into the leak, and to consider how the information might have been leaked and what effects such leaks might have.
The review should not only involve the technical side, but also assess internal management and potential operational oversight, he said.
The government should bolster information security management, including but not limited to adopting better technology for information technology defense, fostering greater information security consciousness among the staff and establishing systems to control information reading, writing and monitoring, he said.
Chen said he would demand that Chunghwa Telecom and government agencies present a report tomorrow, adding that he would demand that all related government agencies collaborate to provide greater data security protections against international attempts to hack the nation’s information security systems.
Chunghwa, a publicly traded company, announced in a statement to the Taiwan stock exchange on Thursday that it had “conducted investigations to clarify the cause of the suspected incident.”
“Currently, there is no significant impact on the company’s operations,” it said, referring to potential losses from the data theft.
Government officials have said that persistent cyberthreats are a form of “gray zone harassment” in which China engages on a near-daily basis, including flying warplanes around Taiwan and sending vessels to its surrounding waters.
While stopping short of clear acts of war, the tactics are enough to keep the military and digital security agencies occupied, experts say.
Last year, Microsoft flagged the threat from a China-based group called Flax Typhoon that was targeting Taiwan.
The US tech giant said that Flax Typhoon intended “to perform espionage and maintain access” to Taiwanese organizations for as long as possible.
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