The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office today said it indicted three suspects in connection with an “internal breach” of Radio Taiwan International’s (RTI) Web site in September.
On Sept. 11, RTI reported an online attack in which the banner on its Web site was replaced with the People’s Republic of China flag.
Former RTI engineer Wu Cheng-hsun (吳政勳), former section chief Yue Chao-chu (岳昭莒) and a third man named Huang Fu-lin (黃富琳) were today indicted on charges including interfering with computer systems.
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Taipei Times
Prosecutors said they are seeking prison terms of three years for Wu, two-and-a-half years for Yue and a similarly severe sentence for Huang, as their actions were intended to provoke cross-strait tensions.
Following the incident, RTI convened a personnel review committee and decided to dismiss Wu, while Yue was disciplined with a major demerit for negligence in supervision and failing to stop the misconduct.
Yue has since voluntarily retired.
Wu began working at RTI in May as an engineer in the online media division and was responsible for Web site maintenance and information security audits, the indictment said.
Yue was head of the division and managed the Web site’s original source code, it said.
Huang had previously worked for RTI as a system maintenance contractor and knew both Wu and Yue, it added.
The investigation found that in June, Wu, Yue and Huang conspired to attack the RTI Web site, with Wu allegedly providing the site’s highest-level administrator account without authorization, enabling Huang to access the backend, delete logs of Wu’s activity and provide technical assistance.
The three also formed a Line group, prosecutors found.
Yue knew of Wu and Huang’s actions, but failed to report the matter or intervene, they said.
On Aug. 20, Wu interfered with the parameters of the RTI Web site, changed its Japanese main page so that it showed simplified Chinese or garbled characters, and interrupted the Web site's signal, prosecutors said.
On Sept. 11, 18, 19 and 20, he changed RTI's main site and replaced the Web site with the book cover of The 'Retaking the Mainland' by Taiwanese Government: The Concept of Chinese Unification by the ROC, and changed the banner to the People's Republic of China flag as well as the US flag.
On Sept. 24, prosecutors said that Wu used the Line group to send RTI’s original source code to Huang from inside the RTI office without authorization.
Prosecutors said they searched Wu and Yue’s residences on Sept. 26, with Wu showing no remorse and even logging onto the RTI system two days later to remove a URL.
Wu and Yueh claimed they acted as they suspected Chinese capital was interfering with the RTI Web site, prosecutors said.
Wu's actions damaged RTI's credibility and disrupted its operations, prosecutors said, while local media reported that Wu claimed he did so to "unveil loopholes" in the broadcaster's system.
However, the images that Wu put on the Web site raised tensions across the Taiwan Strait, posing danger far exceeding general criminal offenses, prosecutors said.
Wu's plan to attack the site on Oct. 10, Double Ten National Day, carries great symbolic meaning, they added.
RTI is a national radio broadcaster with Taiwan’s only international radio programming, which relies solely on government funding and is designated as key national infrastructure, they said.
Internal hacking at RTI could have a significant impact on national and public interests, as well as public confidence, they said.
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