The Ministry of National Defense today confirmed a data leak of basic personal information about certain high-ranking officials in response to a report from Chinese-language media, but said it did not include any information about personal asset holdings.
The China Times this morning published a report saying that personal data of people ranked colonel and above — including Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) — was leaked last week.
Citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter, the paper said that the ministry’s Ethics Office was in the process of compiling information on the personal holdings of senior officials, who are required by law to report their assets.
Photo: Taipei Times
The office usually sends the information to each individual separately, it said.
However, a file containing all the information the office had compiled was accidentally sent to the declarants and their military units, the paper reported.
Pseudonyms are used for military personnel for security purposes, but their real names are used for the asset report, the paper said.
In a news release, the ministry said that the office on Tuesday last week sent the asset reporting list to the appropriate units for authorization.
After an investigation, the ministry said it found some leaks of sensitive personal information in the reporting process.
The data included their service unit, title, name and reporting year, but not any personal savings information, real-estate holdings or investments, it said.
The ministry said it has already informed the recipients to return the document and perform risk control.
It also vowed to investigate the cause of the negligence and strengthen communication to prevent a recurrence.
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
RSS