A Chinese monopoly on local telecommunications in some countries poses a security threat to Taiwan’s overseas missions, an academic has said.
Kuma Academy chief executive officer Ho Cheng-hui (何澄輝) made the remarks following the release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MOFA) budget review report for this fiscal year, which said that 14 overseas missions were found to use questionable brands of information and communications technology (ICT), and 19 use services from questionable telecoms.
The report on “the review and implementation of protective measures for the information security at overseas missions” said that telecom services at 17 missions cannot be replaced due to Chinese companies’ monopoly on local telecom markets.
Photo: Reuters
Aside from the 17 missions, two other missions were found to have installed Chinese social media apps on official mobile phones to collect information and communicate with overseas communities, the ministry said, adding that it has registered the phones and ordered more inspections.
The phones are going to be managed by the ministry personnel according to the “for official use only” principle and may not connect to the ministry’s network, it said.
As the Chinese equipment and services are irreplaceable in some places, the missions’ information security would be reinforced through project management and periodic inspections, it added.
Ho said that overseas missions are supposed to compartmentalize data and messages of different levels, and adopt safer encryption channels to exchange information, but there are still risks as most Chinese services used by the missions have a backdoor.
Sensitive information such as personal documents could be handled elsewhere rather than the duty area, as there might be risks related to the local environment, he said.
The Ministry of Digital Affairs should inspect each overseas mission along with MOFA, or a government agency should be assigned to conduct a general review, he said.
MOFA should provide officials in each mission with information security training, he said.
The inspections can be conducted by task forces or non-governmental information security companies to avoid departmental parochialism, he added.
Overseas missions generally would have their information encrypted, but they should be more careful of personnel’s ICT equipment, said Tzeng Yi-suo (曾怡碩), assistant research fellow of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s Division of Cyber Security and Decision-Making Simulation.
Even data transmitted via cables can be intercepted, physically monitored or spied on, so it is important to keep information within premises, Tzeng said.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to