Chinese hackers on average attack the Legislative Yuan (LY) 900,000 times a month, according to the legislature’s information technology (IT) department.
Department head Cheng Hui-pin (鄭輝彬) made the remarks after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) asked questions about the security and quality of the legislature’s wifi service during the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee’s review of the legislature’s budget on Thursday last week.
The Legislative Yuan’s network is connected to devices with sensitive information that could harm national security if the system is compromised, Chung said, adding that the legislature’s wifi is slow and experiences frequent outages.
Photo: REUTERS
Additionally, some of the microphones utilized by the legislature’s committees were so loud that they could damage hearing and make business impossible to conduct in adjoining rooms, he said.
The IT department must submit a report on these problems within three months or its budget could be suspended, Chung said.
In response, Cheng said that cybersecurity is a top priority and that IT technicians have been detecting a high number of cyberattacks of Chinese origin targeting the legislature each month.
The department routinely reviews the legislature’s cyberdefenses as required under the Cyber Security Management Act (資通安全管理法), he said.
A detailed report on the issues raised by the committee would be compiled and submitted when ready, Cheng said.
Following negotiations between the DPP and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members of the committee, the lawmakers issued a resolution demanding the IT department solve the issues without freezing its budget.
The IT department is directed to test all devices connected to the legislature’s network for security and check audio equipment, lawmakers said, adding that soundproofing should be installed in the chambers.
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