Formosa Television (FTV) reported an intensive series of cyberattacks while China’s People’s Liberation Army conducted live-fire military exercises, the National Communications Commission said yesterday.
The television station was the only broadcast media in Taiwan to report a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, Department of Infrastructure and Cybersecurity Deputy Director Wu Ming-ren (吳銘仁) said, adding that the network reported information security breaches on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and yesterday.
“The cyberattacks have mainly affected FTV’s Web site and its live broadcast over YouTube,” Wu said. “The YouTube content was changed by hackers on Saturday.”
The volume of the cyberattacks varied from 3 to 10 megabits per second, he said, adding that they had eased by yesterday.
The television station has followed procedures outlined in the Cybersecurity Management Act (資通安全管理法) to report the security breaches to the commission within one hour of their occurence, Wu said, adding that the network also adopted measures to address the security breaches within 72 hours.
There are two types of DDoS attack, Wu said.
One is to block access to a Web site by using Internet protocol packets to cause severe bandwidth congestion and the other is to overwhelm a Web site by drastically increasing the number of user applications linked to it, he said.
FTV has multiple ways to defend its network from both types of DDoS attack, he said.
“The television station can ask Internet service providers [ISPs] to deal with cyberattacks or use Web application firewalls to isolate its network from certain user applications,” Wu said.
“ISPs can use gateways to block offshore Internet protocol addresses, or the television station can build a separate network to diversify the risks of cyberattacks,” he said.
To prevent Chinese hackers from infiltrating Taiwan’s terrestrial and cable television networks, the commission has asked all broadcast media operators to carefully review their content before they are aired, Wu said.
On Sunday, FTV in a statement said that its signal source host was hacked, causing content on its YouTube channel to be different from what it broadcast on TV.
The breach affected only its live online content, the network said, adding that operations of its terrestrial and cable channels proceeded uninterrupted.
“We were notified about the incident at 8:52pm on Saturday and removed the content by 8:54pm,” FTV said. “We have been handling cyberattacks that have happened recently to ensure the safety of our broadcast.”
Screenshots taken by FTV viewers showed that the network’s YouTube channel displaying pro-China statements, including: “China’s territorial sovereignty cannot be interfered by outsiders,” “I would like to use the youth of our generation to defend the prosperous China” and “Public opinion must not be violated, and playing with fire will surely set oneself on fire.”
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data