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Taiwan Under Cyber Attack from China
An anonymous reader writes: "O'Reilly Developer News is reporting this morning that Taipei is under cyber attack by a Chinese 'army of hackers'. The Taipei government is saying that the attacks are trojan-horses against windows machines that are being staged to break in to government databases."
Cabinet says computers under attack
INFORMATION WARFARE: A Cabinet spokesman said Beijing is waging a campaign designed to access databases in Taiwan through the use of Trojan-horse computer programs
By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Sep 04, 2003,Page 1
China has launched a systematic information warfare campaign against Taiwan, spreading Trojan-horse programs into private companies' computers as a means to break into government databases, the Cabinet said yesterday.
"National intelligence has indicated that an army of hackers based in China's Hubei and Fujian provinces has successfully spread 23 different Trojan horse programs to the networks 10 private high-tech companies here to use them as a springboard to break into at least 30 different government agencies and 50 private companies," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung () said yesterday.
The government agencies invaded by the Trojan-horse programs include the National Police Administration, the Ministry of National Defense, the Central Election Commission and the Central Bank of China.
To minimize the damage, Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday instructed all central government agencies to scrutinize their computer systems and report to the authorities within two days. Those failing or refusing to comply with the order may face punishment.
Yu made the remark yesterday morning during the weekly closed-door Cabinet meeting, in which Minister without Portfolio Tsai Ching-yen () briefed Yu on the matter.
"Trojan-horse attacks are one of the most serious threats to computer security," Tsai said. "A computer user may have not only been attacked but may also be attacking others unknowingly."
Because of the vast popularity and many weaknesses of the Windows operating system, most of the damage is done to Windows users, Tsai said.
Although the National Information Task Force has warned government agencies to be on alert, Tsai said, some agencies have failed to take the warning seriously.
"They either delayed reporting to authorities or tried to solve the problem themselves. It not only stalled our response efforts but also made the situation worse," Tsai said.
Since it appears no government information has been stolen, Tsai said, the deployment of the program is likely aimed at paralyzing the nation's computer systems.
"Of course there are other possibilities such as stealing sensitive government information in vast sums or preparing computers for future information warfare," he said.
To help government agencies invaded by the program clean up the mess, Tsai said the National Information Security Committee plans to complete the programming of the anti-Trojan-horse software today.
"We'll also post the solution manual on the Internet for the convenience of other countries facing the same problem," Tsai said, adding that Taiwan is the first country to have detected the program.
Lee Hsiang-chen (), captain of the National Police Administration's Criminal Investigation Bureau, said the situation has been monitored 24 hours a day over the past two months.
"We're glad that it has been detected before any damage was done," Lee said.
"If there's any lesson from this experience, it is not to use software developed in China or hire Chinese computer programmers, because you're running the risk of having the software you use implanted with the Trojan-horse program," he said.
Karma: Can there be a void?
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Here is the cause. Taiwan recently conducted military exercises simulating a Chinese invasion despite Chinese protests. I would imagine that this is China's response.
Or it could be preparation for an all out invasion by China. Now that would be a fun war to watch.
As a former resident of taiwan (2 years), I can say this:
Taiwan is just as free/democratic as the US. Taiwan has a free press, a former minority party in charge, large voter populace, and more informed voters. There's marches and protests against the government all the time. As for pirated software...uh, um...
there's the whole pirated anime problem.
...
The pirated anime "problem" was summed at as Taiwan isn't a member of the Berne convention. Now, although the Berne convention dates back to the 19th century, even the PRC wasn't a signatory until 1992. And Taiwan-- well there's this large hulking monster of a country that seems to believe that if Taiwan accedes to any International Intellectual Property conventions, that somehow violates that bully's sovereignty. So, even if Taiwan wants to impose rather draconian IP laws, it's all tangled up in the cross-straits issue. Taiwan does have bilateral agreements with some countries, but oh my, is that a low rumble of protest I'm hearing from the reds?
That must be the secret plan of PRC-- block Taiwan from acceding to treaties "protecting" IP, smear Taiwan as a country of Pirates, and since high seas piracy is a breach of international law, it has some kind of Casus Belli.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to bathe. I've spent far too much time reading about TRIPS, GATT, and the Berne convention, and feel rather
dirty.
1st, Taiwan staged its largest-ever war games a few days back. It's trying to take an even-more-solid defensive posture because it knows that the US is too bogged down in Iraq to come fully to its defense if China invades soon.
2nd, when I worked in Taiwan in the late 80s, there was a single pipe into the country which the government heavily monitored. The pipe's much fatter now. Anyone know how heavy the monitoring is these days?
3rd, the mainland would be totally stupid not to try to break into Taiwanese databases. Any professional intelligence agency anywhere in the world has people assigned to breaking into friends' and neighbors' databases.
4th, the government on Taiwan is the only legitimate government of China. We may be making a terrible mistake not to back it, and not to demand the dissolution of the illegitimate government on the mainland. But hey, the mainland will sell us cheap goods made with slave and prison labor - good enough for us....
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
"Some" being the key word there. GW Bush deserted the Texas Air National Guard for approximately a full year between 1972-1973. This was originally reported in the May 23rd issue of the Boston Globe.
More information on that here and here.