National Taiwan University (NTU) has clarified that a report that its online education platform, CEIBA, had been hacked was a false alarm, as it was simply an error that occurred when a Department of Information Engineering student was conducting research.
The university on Wednesday reported that its system was hacked and that all students’ scores had been changed to 87.
The suspicion was that the numerals were specifically chosen to mock the university, as the number “87” means “idiot” in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) Internet lingo.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The university’s Department of Education Affairs Information Division director Kevin Chang (張良鵬) said on Friday that the department received notice on Wednesday that an engineering student had accidentally changed the scores.
“The student, who was testing theories about information security loopholes, made the changes to what they thought was one entry,” Chang said. “However, the single change affected the entire system.”
Fortunately for the university, the online education platform is an isolated platform for grading purposes and is not connected to the department database, he said.
The department recovered the original grades by restoring a previous backup of the system, he added.
Department director Ting Shih-tung (丁詩同) said the university’s Computer and Information Networking Center will be performing routine check-ups on university Web sites every three months.
The university’s Student Association head Tu Chun-ching (涂峻清) said that the school should be more cautious in terms of information security and that the university should reduce its reliance on information systems, citing an incident at National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) as an example
NSYSU associate professor Chen Chih-chieh (陳至潔) on Facebook on Thursday said that university professors specializing in political science or cross-strait studies had their e-mails monitored — some for up to three years — by someone posing as a school official.
Commenting on the NTU incident, National Chiao Tung University Department of Computer Science professor Lin Ying-dar (林盈達) said that campus Internet systems are more open than networks used in the private sector.
While the student should not have been able to do what they did, NTU should ensure that its servers are compliant with the International Organization for Standardization Information Security Management System 27001, Lin said.
NTU should have annual checkups and detect weak points in its information security defenses, Lin said, adding that NTU should also consider setting aside a few days when lecturers and students would be “white hat” hackers, attacking the system to find weaknesses.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to