The Chinese communist regime launched more cyberattacks against Taiwan after U.S. House speakers Nancy Pelosi’s visit, while doing live-fire military exercises that crossed into Taiwan’s side of the Taiwan Strait. Facing the threats, the National Defense Security Research Institute in Taiwan called for drills to ward off the attacks.
The institute, a think tank of Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, published a report titled “Revelation from the Russian-Ukrainian War to the CCP’s ‘Cyber War’ to Taiwan” on Aug. 8. Colonel Liao Song-bai wrote that, regarding the escalated cyberattacks by the Chinese regime, the government should conduct national-level “cyber warfare attack and defense drills” in response. He pointed out that cyber warfare blurs the line between peacetime and wartime, “because the cyber wars are fought almost every day.”
In the report, he listed the CCP’s most recent attacks. Last week during Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, TV screens on many supermarket walls across Taiwan, including 7-11 stores, and display screens in subways were hacked to show simplified Chinese characters reading messages like “Old Witch Visiting Taiwan.” The TV display systems were all using Chinese apps, according to the Taiwan National Communication Commission, which made them vulnerable to the hacks.
On Aug. 2 when Pelosi arrived in Taiwan, there were 23 times more cyberattacks targeting Taiwan than usual, and government websites, such as the Presidential Palace, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were all hacked by IP addresses in China and Russia. Chinese hacker group APT27 claimed responsible for the attacks.
According to a survey by Check Point Software Technologies, a security software provider based in Israel, Taiwan in 2021 was attacked by hackers an average of 2,644 times per week—a 38 percent jump from previous years. The rate is the highest in the Asia-Pacific.
Col. Liao also warned about the psychological war being raged against Taiwan by the Chinese communist regime. He wrote that in recent years, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people’s work and other activities have shifted to online while facing a significant increase in the frequency of the CCP’s cyberattacks.
In addition, the CCP’s cyber army continues to launch “disinformation campaigns” to manipulate public opinion in Taiwan through social media posts and fake news, provoking antagonistic emotions among Taiwanese on social issues and causing social division.
Col. Liao suggested that in addition to efforts to raising cyber security awareness and online safety, the government should lead a “Cyber Warfare Offensive and Defense Drill” with the private sector, to accumulate experience and countermeasures for preventing more serious problems in the future.
He also advised private citizens to work together to improve Taiwan’s overall cyber security. He suggested that people should improve their online habits, be more vigilant when choosing IT products, avoid sharing data with unknown parties, avoid opening unfamiliar or unknown emails and attachments, avoid linking and logging into unfamiliar websites, and not downloading unauthorized software.
