TAIPEI: Major Taiwanese government websites were temporarily forced offline by cyberattacks allegedly linked to China and Russia during the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy PelosiThe island’s visit, Taipei said on Thursday.
The websites of the presidential office, the foreign ministry and the government’s main English-language portal were hacked Tuesday night when Pelosi arrived for a landmark visit that angered Beijing.
China, the country that declares autonomous democracy Taiwan as part of its territory will one day be captured, began its largest-ever military exercise around the island on Thursday in response.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense also said its website was offline for an hour around midnight on Wednesday due to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
DDoS is a simple disruption attack that overloads a website with requests for information. It has nothing to do with hacking.
According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the attacks on its website and the government’s English-language portal were linked to Chinese and Russian IP addresses.
“As cyberattacks from hostile foreign forces can still occur at any time, the State Department will continue to remain vigilant,” the spokeswoman said. Joanne Ou told reporters on Thursday.
The president’s office said it would step up surveillance in the face of a “mixed information war by outside forces”.
Taipei has accused Beijing of increasing cyber attacks since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen, who considers the island a sovereign state rather than part of China. .
Officials say Taiwanese government agencies face about 5 million cyber attacks and probes every day.
In 2020, Taiwanese authorities said Chinese hackers infiltrated at least 10 Taiwanese government agencies and gained access to about 6,000 email accounts in an attempt to steal data.
The websites of the presidential office, the foreign ministry and the government’s main English-language portal were hacked Tuesday night when Pelosi arrived for a landmark visit that angered Beijing.
China, the country that declares autonomous democracy Taiwan as part of its territory will one day be captured, began its largest-ever military exercise around the island on Thursday in response.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense also said its website was offline for an hour around midnight on Wednesday due to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
DDoS is a simple disruption attack that overloads a website with requests for information. It has nothing to do with hacking.
According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the attacks on its website and the government’s English-language portal were linked to Chinese and Russian IP addresses.
“As cyberattacks from hostile foreign forces can still occur at any time, the State Department will continue to remain vigilant,” the spokeswoman said. Joanne Ou told reporters on Thursday.
The president’s office said it would step up surveillance in the face of a “mixed information war by outside forces”.
Taipei has accused Beijing of increasing cyber attacks since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen, who considers the island a sovereign state rather than part of China. .
Officials say Taiwanese government agencies face about 5 million cyber attacks and probes every day.
In 2020, Taiwanese authorities said Chinese hackers infiltrated at least 10 Taiwanese government agencies and gained access to about 6,000 email accounts in an attempt to steal data.
