Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) chairman Chien Chih-cheng (簡志誠) yesterday denied allegations made by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Ju-chun (葛如均), saying that more than 99.9 percent of government Web sites have completed certification updates and that Internet certifications being a national security issue was “hyperbolic language.”
Ko yesterday said that the Ministry of Digital Affairs’ claims to adopt pre-emptive measures in light of a May 30 Google Security Blog post were false, as 14 government Web sites were still using Chunghwa certifications and had no plans to implement dual certification encryption.
Even the Ministry of Digital Affairs had not implemented dual certification validation, he said.
Photo: CNA
As of press time, the ministry’s Web site was using a Chunghwa Telecom-issued certificate.
Without information security, there is no national security, Ko said.
The May 30 blog post outlined how Chrome had lost confidence in the reliability of Chunghwa Telecom as a certification authority. Transport Layer Security server authentication certificates that validate root certificates from Chunghwa Telecom would no longer be trusted by default after July 31.
However, Chien said that Chunghwa Telecom’s certificates would continue to be effective past that date and that the issue would not affect information or national security.
Mozilla Firefox also adjusted the trust settings for Chunghwa Telecom’s old ePKI Root Certification Authority (eCA), Digitimes Asia reported.
Instead of distrusting all eCAs, it set a distrust-after date: 23:59:59 on April 15, 2025 (UTC time zone), it said.
Chien said that Mozilla was updating all eCAs from earlier dates, which included Chunghwa Telecom’s certifications, adding that the information was misinterpreted.
Ko’s information should be verified, as 99.9 percent of all Web sites using Chunghwa Telecom certificates have switched to new certificates, or are using dual certificate verification, he said.
Seven government agencies are still in the process of implementing the new certificates or adopting dual certification mechanisms, he added.
However, Ko said that 31 ministries under the Executive Yuan used either Chunghwa Telecom certificates or the Taiwan Network Certificate Authority, so there is a large discrepancy between Chunghwa Telecom’s claims and the actual situation.
He demanded that all Web sites for committee-level government agencies be reviewed to ensure that dual certification verification has been implemented.
Ko also said that the ministry should work with Chunghwa Telecom to find out why the company’s certificate authorities are being distrusted.
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