The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday launched a comprehensive cybersecurity initiative to patch Internet vulnerabilities ahead of next month’s annual Han Kuang training exercises.
Entities under the ministry are required to patch known vulnerabilities and report any suspicious Internet activity in their networks over the first four days of the 11-day initiative, starting today, the General Staff Headquarters said in a communique obtained by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
Each entity is to organize a task force to surveil their cybersecurity environment in the three days following the implementation of the initial patches, it said.
Photo: Reuters
Any new suspicious activity or vulnerabilities that the task forces detect should be reported, tracked and rectified in the final four days of the initiative, the headquarters said.
Additionally, organizations under the ministry are to ensure that all mandatory software updates have been applied, backups have been made, and the password protection or encryption of sensitive information has been properly implemented, it said.
Ministry Web sites should be monitored for signs of “digital vandalism,” denial of service attacks or other hacks that should be addressed, it said.
The initiative comes two days after the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s Web site experienced an outage. The incident triggered media concern over the government’s data security, although a bureau spokesperson later said the incident was caused by hardware failure and not an attack.
Separately, National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) is today scheduled to appear before lawmakers in a hearing of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
Legislators requested his presence to clarify issues concerning the government’s proposed amendments to the Communication Security and Surveillance Act (通訊保障及監察法), sources said.
Lawmakers on the committee were unable to agree on several provisions of the bill regarding the government’s power to surveil telecom metadata and use it in criminal prosecutions, they said.
Officials from the National Communications Commission and Chunghwa Telecom were also asked to attend the hearing today, sources said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
‘LIKE-MINDED PARTNER’: Tako van Popta said it would be inappropriate to delay signing the deal with Taiwan because of China, adding he would promote the issue Canadian senators have stressed Taiwan’s importance for international trade and expressed enthusiasm for ensuring the Taiwan-Canada trade cooperation framework agreement is implemented this year. Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) in an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) said he was increasingly uneasy about Ottawa’s delays in signing the agreement, especially as Ottawa has warmed toward Beijing. There are “no negotiations left. Not only [is it] initialed, we have three versions of the text ready: English, French and Mandarin,” Tseng said. “That tells you how close we are to the final signature.” Tseng said that he hoped Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Japan and the US are expected to hold in-depth discussions on Taiwan-related issues during the meeting next month, Japanese sources said The holding of a Japan-US leaders’ meeting ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China is positive news for Taiwan, former Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association representative Hiroyasu Izumi said yesterday. After the Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide victory in Japan’s House of Representatives election, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is scheduled to visit the US next month, where she is to meet with Trump ahead of the US president’s planned visit to China from March 31 to April 2 for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Japan and the US are expected to hold in-depth discussions on Taiwan-related issues during the
RSS