Chinese hackers have allegedly attacked Taiwanese targets, including local news organizations and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), in a bid to get information about policies and speeches ahead of next month’s presidential and legislative elections.
An attack on the unnamed media outlets came in the form of phishing e-mails with the subject line “DPP’s Contact Information Update,” according to research by security company FireEye, which identified a Chinese state-backed group called APT16 as carrying out the attacks.
Hackers also infiltrated e-mails of party staff, changing security protocols and writing messages spoofing the account holders in what might have been an attempt to deliver malicious code, according to one of the victims.
Opinion polls show the DPP is likely to win a legislative majority in the Jan. 16 elections, with DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) expected to secure the presidency after eight years of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule.
China is wary of the DPP’s views on Taiwanese independence and advocacy of more caution in its relationship with China.
As well as not wanting the DPP in power, China might want to understand the party better to be able to undermine it with access to non-public information, FireEye principal threat intelligence analyst Jordan Berry said by telephone.
“There’s a lot of people in China who want and need information for their own intelligence purposes,” Berry said.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not reply to a faxed request for comment.
Another target appears to be former American Institute in Taiwan director William Stanton, who said he has received multiple warnings from Google that his Gmail account might be targeted by government hackers.
“If you were directed to this page from a warning displayed above your Gmail inbox, we believe that state-sponsored attackers may be attempting to compromise your account or computer,” the warning read, without identifying the nation. “It’s likely that you received e-mails containing malicious attachments, links to malicious software downloads, or links to fake Web sites that are designed to steal your passwords or other personal information.”
Stanton, who was the agency’s director from 2009 to 2012 in a position akin to ambassador, told Bloomberg News he believes he is being targeted because of his former role, as well as his current position as director of National Tsing Hua University’s Center for Asia Policy.
While the DPP has been under attack for months, the frequency of attacks has increased in the past few weeks, said DPP deputy director of international affairs Ketty Chen (陳婉宜), who was among as many as 50 DPP staff targeted by hackers. She said she was alerted when she noticed inconsistencies in the writing style of a colleague in internal correspondence.
“There were fake e-mails that looked like they came from her,” Chen said. “When I read it, the style was not how she would write, so I called to ask if she really sent them, and she said that she had not.”
Chen received e-mails purporting to come from Tsai’s speechwriter and another from a member of the DPP’s cross-strait policy team. In each case, the e-mail asked the recipient to open an attachment purporting to be a draft document.
Hackers typically send e-mails to targets hoping they open attachments loaded with malware that infiltrate their computers, providing links to colleagues’ computers and contacts.
Due to concerns over the security of their work accounts, some DPP staff switched to Gmail, Chen said. Chen’s Gmail account was compromised when hackers turned off the two-step identification verification process by deleting her mobile number and adding a forwarding address so that all incoming e-mails went to an external Gmail account.
The allegations come weeks after China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that an investigation into an alleged theft of data from the US Office of Personnel Management had shown the attack was carried out by criminals, rather than being state-sponsored as previously suspected by the US government.
DPP spokesman Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said that, to prevent leaks of confidential information, the party must take data security measures, such as never transmitting classified information via the internet.
Additional reporting by Su Feng-ho
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