Mainland Chinese hackers attacked government agencies to steal data, Taiwan says
- Four groups targeted at least 10 agencies and 6,000 email accounts of officials, according to self-ruled island’s Investigation Bureau
- It says some of the cyberattacks were carried out through Taiwanese contractors and it has set up a task force to handle the case
Four mainland Chinese hacking groups have attacked at least 10 Taiwanese government agencies and 6,000 email accounts of officials in a bid to steal important information, according to the self-ruled island.
The attacks posed a serious threat to government operations and cybersecurity and a task force had been set up to deal with the case, Taiwan’s Investigation Bureau said on Wednesday.
“Our investigation showed that four Chinese-backed groups, which use the names Blacktech, Taidoor, MustangPanda and APT40, have hacked into at least 10 central and local-level government departments and agencies since 2018 to steal important documents and data,” said Liu Chia-zung, deputy director of the bureau’s Cyber Security Investigation Office.
Liu said some of the attacks had been carried out through four Taiwanese tech providers that were contracted to help upgrade and maintain important data systems for some government agencies.
“Through these contractors, the hackers set up relay stations which they used to attack government departments to obtain the important files or information they wanted,” Liu said.
He said the hackers had planted a back door in five mail servers of one government agency maintained by one of the four contractors, and at least 6,000 email accounts of the agency’s officials had been hacked.
