A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today.
The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times).
Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back up by the afternoon.
Photo: screen grab from Telegram
NoName057 released DDoSia as a DDoS attack toolkit in 2022 for use against critics of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Taiwan faces cyberattacks from overseas because of its special political situation, the Ministry of Digital Affairs’ Administration for Cyber Security said.
The agency is getting information through exchanges with other countries and has notified relevant authorities to deal with the situation, it said, but added that the information must remain confidential.
Radware said that the attack might be related to Taiwan’s support for Ukraine and Lai’s comment on Chinese and Russian territory during an interview last week.
“Last week, Taiwan’s president suggested that China should take away Russia’s land in the Far East,” NoName057 said on Telegram. “This statement reflects the ‘virtual reality’ in which such satellite countries are immersed.”
“One of our tasks is to remind such Taiwanese that they are just a pawn in this game, taking advantage of US protectionism in the international arena,” the group added. “Beijing’s control over the island is only a matter of time.”
NoName057 usually targets countries that support Ukraine, attacking their financial sectors, public infrastructure, communication services and media outlets, Radware said.
The hacker group has attacked Ukrainian and Canadian government Web sites, and Czech presidential candidates’ Web sites, the company said.
Speaking on cable TV network ERATV's The View with Catherine Chang last week, Lai said that China's aim of annexing Taiwan was not driven by concerns for "territorial integrity."
"If it is really about territorial integrity, why don't they take back the land that was signed away and occupied by Russia in the Treaty of Aigun?" Lai asked, referring to the 1858 treaty signed by the Qing Dynasty that ceded about 600,000km² of land in Manchuria to the Russian empire.
Beijing wishes to annex Taiwan because it wants to "transform the rules-based global order" and "achieve hegemony," not because of concerns over territorial integrity, Lai said.
Additional reporting by Kayleigh Madjar, CNA and Reuters
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