The government’s poor response to abuse of its digital ID system highlights its inability to efficiently handle cybersecurity issues and is exposing the public to great risks, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Ju-chun (葛如均) said yesterday.
The government has promoted the Natural Person Certificate system as a critical infrastructure for e-governance, with about 8 million of the digital certificates issued and half that in use, Ko said.
However, among bank accounts flagged as “watched,” four times as many were opened using a Natural Person Certificate than were opened using other forms of identification, Ko said, citing Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) data.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
Scammers might be tricking many people into divulging their information, allowing them to fraudulently apply for the certificates and use them to open bank accounts, he said.
At least 17 banks, state-owned and private, have suspended the use of the certificates as identification, he said.
The government’s response has been absurd, including suggesting that people turn off digital messaging services, setting limits on fund transfers, and asking banks to suspend withdrawals and transactions for accounts that have been inactive for half a year, he said.
The government’s inability to offer solutions — while oppressing the KMT, which is providing oversight — shows that that it is not trustworthy, Ko said.
The passage of the Electronic Signature Act (電子簽章法) last year means that the government should have introduced other security measures, such as the Fast Identity Online standard, multifactor authentication, biometrics or limiting operations to bound cellphones, he said.
Instead, the Ministry of Digital Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, the FSC and the National Police Agency are passing the buck and no action has been taken, he said.
The government has other things to worry about in its digital governance, he said.
On May 30, a Google Security Blog post outlined how Chrome had lost confidence in the reliability of Chunghwa Telecom as a certification authority, meaning the Web browser would soon start issuing warnings when people visit government sites, he said.
Meanwhile, Dire Wolf, a hacker group, claimed credit for a breach of Kiwi86’s servers and is holding ransom 20GB of the insurance system service provider’s data, he said.
The public cannot trust the state-sponsored digital ID system, which creates a lack of security and undermines any further attempts to establish digital autonomy, Ko said.
Government agencies should stop promising lots and delivering little, and instead do their jobs, which is to make Taiwan a haven for digital technology developers, not scammers, he added.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked