Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said hackers stole “classified information” including military and government documents from Taiwan’s largest telecommunications company and sold it on the dark web.
Confirmation of Democracy Island’s latest major data breach follows a report by local news channel TVBS about the hacking of telecommunications giant Chunghwa Telecom.
The report included a screenshot of a post announcing that hackers were “selling 1.7 terabytes of Chunghwa Telecom’s data,” including government contracts.
“Initial analysis of the case is that the hackers obtained confidential information from Chunghwa Telecom and sold it on the dark web, including documents from the military, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Coast Guard and other forces,” the Ministry of Defense said. acknowledged this in a statement sent to the country. AFP Friday.
Taiwan is one of the countries most targeted for cybersecurity attacks in the world, according to digital data experts. Some say the tactics used against Taiwan’s infrastructure bear the hallmarks of a Chinese state-backed group.
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The Chinese government claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
The Ministry of Defense added that the Air Force contract included in the China information leak was “not classified information, so no information was leaked.”
Communications between the Navy Ministry and the People’s Republic of China also did not contain classified information, the ministry said.
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The ministry said, “To prevent a recurrence in the future, we requested related companies to strengthen their information security management.”
Neither the ministry’s statement nor the TVBS report mentioned the identity or whereabouts of the hackers.
The listed company, China, said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Thursday that it had “conducted an investigation to determine the cause of the alleged incident.”
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Regarding the possibility of losses due to data theft, the company said, “At this point, there is no material impact on our operations.”
Government officials say the persistent cyber threat is a form of “gray zone harassment” that China engages in on an almost daily basis, including flying fighter jets around the island and sending ships into surrounding waters. He said that.
Experts say these tactics, while short of an overt act of war, are enough to keep Taiwan’s military and digital security institutions occupied.
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Last year, Microsoft warned of a threat from a China-based group called Flax Typhoon targeting Taiwan.
The US tech giant said Flax Typhoon was intended to “conduct espionage and maintain access” to various organizations in Taiwan for as long as possible.
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