Following a surge in phishing scams, the Ministry of Digital Affairs on Tuesday fined online marketplace Shopee and local bookstore Eslite for failing to protect customer data.
Singapore-based Shopee and Eslite Spectrum Co were fined NT$200,000 and NT$100,000 respectively for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), the ministry said in a statement.
Shopee, which the Criminal Investigation Bureau in March said was the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) platform on which people were most likely to be exposed to phishing scams, failed to take concrete action to address the threats it faced, the ministry said.
Photo: Hsu Tzu-ling, Taipei Times
When Shopee was asked for information, it only provided a limited amount of data about customer safety, the ministry said, adding that it failed to prove it had taken the necessary measures to protect customer data.
Shopee also failed to effectively supervise partners it outsources to, which contributed to the leak, the ministry said.
Reports to the 165 anti-fraud hotline led to the discovery of the phishing attacks on C2C platforms, it said.
The hackers’ goal is to steal personal or business information used by customers to carry out online transactions and use it to scam people, it said.
Eslite was found to have poor account management during an on-site inspection, the ministry said.
The bookstore came under fire last month after a customer’s private data were allegedly leaked to a supposed Chinese agent.
NGO worker Cynthia Yang (楊欣慈) received a telephone call in February from someone claiming to be a Taiwanese pollster who asked questions about a book titled If China Attacks (阿共打來怎麼辦), which Yang had purchased from Eslite’s online bookstore.
However, the caller’s accent and terminology suggested they were not Taiwanese, said Yang, who is deputy executive secretary of the Here I Stand Project, a Taiwanese non-profit organization that seeks to promote the nation’s youth internationally.
The caller also kept emphasizing how “sensitive” the book’s contents were and insisted that “a military unification [of Taiwan and China] was inevitable,” Yang told a news conference held by her organization and the Taiwan Statebuilding Party on May 14.
The ministry said that it would continue to monitor the companies and other e-commerce firms.
Shopee and Eslite need to make improvements soon to avoid more fines, it added.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS