China behind cyberattacks on govt agencies, says Taiwan


Taipei: Taiwan said on Wednesday that hacking groups linked to the Chinese government had attacked at least 10 government agencies and some 6,000 email accounts of government officials in an infiltration to steal important data.

Democratic Taiwan has been urging its people to be alert for what officials call “omnipresent infiltration” from China, involving from Beijing-backed media campaigns to cyberattacks, against the island that China considers its territory.

Chinese hacking groups have been infiltrating government agencies and their information service providers for a long time, said the deputy director of the Taiwan Investigation Bureau`s Cyber Security Investigation Office, Liu Chia-zung.

They were aiming to acquire important government documents and data, Liu told reporters. Some government data might have been leaked. This has posed a great threat.

The attacks, which started as early as 2018, targeted at least 10 government agencies and the email accounts of some 6,000 officials, Liu`s office said, adding it had not been able to identify what data has been stolen as the hackers had concealed their tracks.