Tag Archive for: Taiwan

How Taiwan is trying to defend against a cyber ‘World War III’

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Taiwan’s head of cybersecurity told CNN Business this month that it is using dramatic measures to guard against technological vulnerabilities — including employing roughly two dozen computer experts to deliberately attack the government’s systems and help it defend against what Taiwanese authorities estimate are some 20 million to 40 million cyberattacks every month.

Taiwan says it has been able to defend against the overwhelming majority of attacks. Successful breaches number in the hundreds, while only a handful are what the government classifies as “serious.”

But the enormous number — and where Taiwan thinks they’re coming from — has compelled the government to take the issue seriously, according to Chien Hung-wei, head of Taiwan’s Department of Cyber Security.

“Based on the attackers’ actions and methodology, we have a rather high degree of confidence that many attacks originated from our neighbor,” he told CNN Business, referring to mainland China.

“The operation of our government highly relies on the internet,” Chien said. “Our critical infrastructure, such as gas, water and electricity are highly digitized, so we can easily fall victim if our network security is not robust enough.”

Cyberattacks are a growing global threat. And while China is far from the only country to be accused of orchestrating such attacks, Beijing this week is facing intense scrutiny from the West on the issue.
On Monday, the United States, the European Union and other allies accused China’s Ministry of State Security of using “criminal contract hackers” to carry out malicious activities around the world, including a campaign against Microsoft’s Exchange email service in March.

The coordinated announcement has illustrated the Biden administration’s priorities in defending cybersecurity, after serious vulnerabilities had been reported in major American sectors, such as energy and food production.

Chien said Taiwan suspects that state-backed hackers were behind at least one major malware attack on the island last year. In May 2020, CPC Corporation — a government-owned refiner in Taiwan — was hacked and left unable to process electronic payments from customers. The Ministry of Justice Investigation…

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Chinese threat actor targets Nepal, the Philippines, and Taiwan. New malware delivery technique. New Trojan can livestream victim’s screen.

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At a glance.

  • Chinese threat actor targets Nepal, the Philippines, and Taiwan.
  • SideCopy goes after Indian entities.
  • New malware delivery technique.
  • New Trojan can livestream victim’s screen.

Chinese threat actor targets Nepal, the Philippines, and Taiwan.

Recorded Future’s Insikt Group is tracking a suspected Chinese government threat actor that’s “targeting telecommunications, academia, research and development, and government organizations in Nepal, the Philippines, Taiwan, and more historically, Hong Kong.” Specifically, the campaign targeted the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan, Nepal Telecom, and the Department of Information and Communications Technology in the Philippines. The researchers emphasize the significance of targeting the ITRI:

“In particular, the targeting of the ITRI is notable due to its role as a technology research and development institution that has set up and incubated multiple Taiwanese technology firms. According to the ITRI’s website, the organization is particularly focused on research and development projects related to smart living, quality health, sustainable environment, and technology, many of which map to development priorities under China’s 14th 5-year plan, previously highlighted by Insikt Group as likely areas of future Chinese economic espionage efforts. In recent years, Chinese groups have targeted multiple organizations across Taiwan’s semiconductor industry to obtain source code, software development kits, and chip designs.”

SideCopy goes after Indian entities.

Cisco Talos is watching a campaign by the SideCopy APT targeting Indian government personnel. The threat actor, whose activity resembles that of Transparent Tribe (APT36), has incorporated new custom and commodity malware into its operations:

“Cisco Talos has observed an expansion in the activity of SideCopy malware campaigns, targeting entities in India. In the past, the attackers have used malicious LNK files and documents to distribute their staple C#-based RAT. We are calling this malware “CetaRAT.” SideCopy also relies heavily on the use of Allakore RAT, a publicly available Delphi-based RAT. “Recent activity from the group, however, signals a boost in…

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Is China really about to invade Taiwan? | Politics News

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Taipei, Taiwan – For the first time in more than half a century, the United States and Japan are expected this week to make a joint statement on the security of the Taiwan Strait following a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

While largely symbolic, the statement would be an indication of increasing concern about the security of the democratically-run island amid dire public warnings from senior US military officials about the threat of an invasion by Beijing, which claims the island as its own.

Admiral John Aquilino recently told a Senate Armed Services committee that taking Taiwan is a “number one” priority for China’s Communist Party, while US Asia Pacific commander Philip Davidson has said publicly that China could invade in the next six years.

Such fears may seem justified by the threatening tone of the Chinese state media and an escalating number of missions by PLA aircraft into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ).

But on the ground in Taiwan, people are neither running for one of the island’s 117,000 working bomb shelters nor enlisting en masse.

Having lived under the threat of Chinese military action for the past 70 years, the island’s 23 million people have come to understand what they consider the strange paradox of Taiwan’s existence: even as China’s military might grows, invasion does not necessarily come any closer.

Some experts believe much of the threat assessment by the US military may actually be more of a reflection of a shift in US perceptions about China amid the deteriorating relationship between the world’s two economic giants.

Taiwan has been modernising its military, including developing new submarines and warships [Ritchie B Tongo/EPA]

“The (Chinese Communist Party’s) hopes for unification with Taiwan have been clear for decades, and (President) Xi Jinping has made clear during his term that use of force is on the table,” said Eric Lee, a research associate at the Project 2049 Institute in Arlington, Virginia.

“This challenge is nothing new. Rather, it reflects an updated threat perception of the CCP and PLA in the context of US strategic competition with…

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Taiwan accuses Chinese hackers of aggressive attacks on government agencies – CyberScoop

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  1. Taiwan accuses Chinese hackers of aggressive attacks on government agencies  CyberScoop
  2. Taiwan Accuses Chinese Hackers of Targeting Its Citizens’ Data  Bloomberg
  3. Taiwan says China behind cyberattacks on government agencies, emails  Reuters
  4. Taiwan accuses Chinese hackers of targeting Taiwanese data  The Straits Times
  5. Chinese hackers infiltrate Taiwan gov’t agencies, gains access to thousands of email IDs | Daily Sabah  Daily Sabah
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