Chinese cyber attacks on Taiwan government becoming
harder to detect: source
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[June 15, 2018]
By Jess Macy Yu
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Cyber attacks from China
on Taiwan's government computers are becoming more difficult to detect,
a source close to government discussions said, as hackers increasingly
use online platforms such as search engines to break into systems.
While the frequency of attacks by China's cyber army has declined, the
success rate of such incursions is rising, the source said.
"Taiwan's official departments suffer from hundreds of successful
internet attacks each year, more than half of which come from assaults
by China's cyber army," the person, who is not authorized to speak to
the media and declined to be identified, told Reuters.
China has strongly denied accusations of engaging in cyber warfare or
hacking, and has said it is itself one of the world's biggest victims of
such incidents.
Both China's Taiwan Affairs Office and the Cyberspace Administration of
China did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The alleged cyber attacks come as Beijing increases diplomatic and
economic pressure on the self-ruled island, which China claims as its
own and considers a wayward province.
The source said hackers are adopting new techniques to conceal their
activities.
"They frequently go through online platforms like Google and blogs, to
hide themselves and give investigators the impression it is a normal
platform or tool, and thus to ignore its background actions," the person
said.
Taiwan's governmental departments face "frequent cyber attacks and
scanning of their vulnerabilities, with the attack volume reaching 10
million a month," the source said.
The majority of attacks targeted non-core service systems, were
low-level in nature, and included activities such as changing websites
and tampering with information. However, there have also been more
serious attacks on core systems.
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A hooded man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on
him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper
Pempel/Illustration

The source also said the Taiwan government had evidence that some of the
attacks had targeted departments and their websites by intruding into
servers and stealing account passwords.
Taiwan's foreign offices abroad have also been targeted through methods
such as taking screen snapshots, keylogging, and unpacking related
information, the source said.
Many of the attacks were now routed through other countries, making it
increasingly difficult to trace.
Since Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen of the left-leaning Democratic
Progressive Party took office in 2016, China's hostility to the island
has increased.
China fears Tsai wants to push for formal independence, although she
says she wants to maintain the status quo and is committed to peace.
Analysts expect the cyber attacks will continue to form a headache for
the Taiwan government.
"Taiwan has very good cyber defense and investigation skills and
capacity. However, under such a huge amount of attacks and the special
relationship across the Strait, it is really hard to prevent 100
percent," said Lennon Chang, a senior lecturer in criminology at Monash
University in Melbourne.
Taiwan is expected to release its information security and national
security strategy later this year.
(Reporting by Jess Macy Yu; Additional Reporting by Ben Blanchard in
BEIJING; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Sam Holmes)
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