Chinese hackers breached the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) internal communications in July last year to discover how the party was planning to address Taiwan, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
The RNC had previously called for a free-trade agreement with Taiwan in its 60-page platform from 2016.
However, by last year, the platform had been cut down to 16 pages and made no mention of Taiwan.
Photo: Reuters
The article was based off of an excerpt from Alex Isenstadt’s upcoming book Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power, which reveals the previously unreported breach.
The Journal said it viewed an excerpt of the book, which is to be released next month, and verified the hack.
The security breach occurred as the RNC was preparing for its national convention in Milwaukee in July last year, people familiar with the matter told the author.
Microsoft informed top party officials in early July that the hackers had access to the RNC e-mail system for months, the people said.
However, top RNC officials and the cochair of US President Donald Trump’s campaign, Chris LaCivita, did not alert the FBI of the hack, as they were concerned the information would be leaked to the media, sources said.
Parts of the US government were aware of the breach, a source familiar with the matter said.
Sources are unsure how big the security breach was or how many e-mails were accessed.
Chinese hackers have targeted US Democratic and Republican campaigns for decades, hoping to discover insights into the policies and personalities of incoming administrations, US intelligence officials told the Wall Street Journal.
For example, Chinese hackers breached the presidential campaigns of former US president Barack Obama and former US senator John McCain in 2008.
These hacks provide “the ability to map relationships between key political actors, and ... get a window into policy shifts or policy thinking and how that might play out if that target comes into power,” said Laura Galante, a top cybersecurity official for the administration of former US president Joe Biden.
“China firmly opposes and combats cyberattacks and cybertheft in all forms,” Chinese Embassy in Washington spokesperson Liu Pengyu (劉鵬宇) told the paper.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
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
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during