Taiwan faced malicious cybersecurity threats at an average of about 15,000 times per second during the first six months of this year, an 80 percent increase from the same period last year, a report published yesterday by Fortinet showed.
A key hub of the global supply chain, Taiwan has in the past few years emerged as a hot spot for cybersecurity threats, the report by the US-based cybersecurity firm said.
Of the 412 billion malicious cybersecurity threats detected in the Asia-Pacific region during the first half of this year, Taiwan accounted for 55 percent, or 22.48 billion threats, the report said.
Photo: Reuters
On average, nearly 15,000 cyberattacks occurred per second, it said.
Meanwhile, the number of cyberattacks detected from January to June jumped 81.6 percent compared with the same period last year, it said.
The most common types of cyberattacks used by hackers include distributed denial of service attacks and DoublePulsar, a backdoor implant tool developed by the US National Security Agency, Fortinet said.
DoublePulsar, which was leaked by a hacker group in 2017, allows attackers to stealthily collect information and run malicious code on a target’s machine.
Although the amount of ransomware detected plunged 93.4 percent compared with last year, Taiwanese corporations should not let down their guard, as hackers are changing their techniques, the report said.
Instead of launching random attacks on software and hardware, hackers now focus more on targeted attacks to maximize their return on investment, it said.
Fortinet Taiwan manager Eric Wu (吳章銘) said that Taiwanese enterprises should deploy information security solutions driven by artificial intelligence systems, while adopting highly integrated and automated smart platforms.
In so doing, corporate information security teams can better understand vulnerabilities and quickly detect cyberattacks, Wu said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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