The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Web site has come under attack from cyberspies seeking to profile visitors to the site, part of a campaign to get information about the party’s policies following its election victory in January, according to a US cybersecurity researcher.
On at least two separate occasions in April, the DPP’s Web site redirected visitors to a spoof online address that hosted a malicious script. That script likely profiled them and selected candidates for additional cyberattacks, according to research by security company FireEye Inc, which said in a statement it had not attributed the operation to a specific group.
FireEye said that it had previously detected China-based cyberespionage groups using the spoof Web site tool and that its use against Taiwanese political targets suggests the actors behind the DPP attacks are supported by Chinese sponsors.
“Taiwan’s public and private sector need to bring together the technology, expertise and threat intelligence to detect and then respond to advanced cyberattacks,” said Michael Chue, general manager for the Greater China region at FireEye.
The DPP’s site was first compromised on April 7 and its administrators appeared to fix it on April 8, according to FireEye.
On April 13, it came under attack again, suggesting “a threat group might be continually monitoring the site due to its importance as a strategic espionage target,” FireEye said.
The attack was again repelled, it added.
FireEye said it expects a sustained hacking campaign against DPP politicians and associated organizations.
It is probable that international non-governmental organizations, diplomatic agencies and other global entities could also be affected by this campaign, it said.
DPP spokesman Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) declined to comment on the April incidents reported by FireEye, but said that the party’s Web site has not experienced any “major systematic attacks” recently.
The DPP is not a customer of FireEye’s, he said.
FireEye said its intelligence team noticed the compromised Web site and that the company had not been hired by the DPP to investigate the attacks.
The DPP, along with local news organizations, came under attack in the lead-up to January’s elections, FireEye said in December last year.
Individual party members also said they had evidence that their e-mail accounts had been hacked.
FireEye, based in California, provides malware and network-threat protection systems. After its Mandiant division alleged in 2013 that China’s military might be behind a group that hacked at least 141 companies worldwide since 2006, the US issued indictments against five military officials who were purported to be members of that group.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS