Taiwan at risk of paralysing cyberattacks from mainland China, security think tank warns

Taiwan’s internet system is vulnerable to attacks from mainland China that could paralyse the self-ruled island, a government think tank has warned.

In the latest edition of its “Defence Situation Monthly” newsletter, the Institute for National Defence and Security Research said Taiwan’s connections to international communications cables and its .tw root domain address were at risk.

“The likelihood of the People’s Republic of China damaging or corrupting submarine cables and related infrastructure that connect Taiwan to the outside world should not be underestimated nor overlooked by the international community,” Tzeng Yi-suo, chief of the institute’s cyberwarfare and information security division, said.

Tzeng said the People’s Liberation Army could sever Taiwan’s links to the outside world by damaging the cables where they connect to the island through a series of stations.

The cables come ashore at four points – near Toucheng in the northeast, Tamsui and Bali in the north as well as Fangshan in the south – and are less than 300 metres below the surface in those areas.

The mainland could also pressure the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which allocates internet addresses, to change the root domain of Taiwan from .tw to a subdomain or variant of .cn, he said.