A government minister asserted that Taiwan experiences four times more cyber attacks than the average country. Earlier this week, Taiwanese Digital Minister Huang Yen-nun (黃彥男) told attendees at the CYBERDAY 2024 Information Security Industry Day in Tainan that hackers attempt to breach Taiwan’s digital defenses an astonishing 15,000 times per second. As well as being 4X the average figure, this digital onslaught is touted as the most intense worldwide.
As far as geopolitics goes, Taiwan is well known to be a political hot potato and a potential flashpoint for a major military conflict in East Asia. Military hardware like planes and ships dance carefully around each other all around the sweet potato-shaped island, but so far (touch wood) have never sparked a serious incident. In contrast, Taiwan is now seen as a “first-level war zone,” in the cyber world.
Huang Yen-nun heads up the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which was only set up in 2022. Revealing these figures to the public might be scary in some ways, but knowing politicians are well aware of the problems and are actively bolstering cybersecurity for government and business should encourage stakeholders.
The Taiwanese government has also reportedly tasked the National Security Bureau with setting up a national cybersecurity response center. Leveraging the country’s top intelligence agency this way, with a structure for information sharing, should also protect both private and government concerns on the island.
In addition to securing data in Taiwan, the above initiative demonstrates that the country is serious about building trust with anyone who works with or trades with the island.
The source report doesn’t hint at who might be targeting Taiwan with these unusually intense cyber-attacks. It is probably safe to assume that attacks come from a mix of geopolitical adversaries and outfits purely out for monetary or economic gain.
A report earlier this year highlighted the claims of NoName057, a pro-Russian hacking group that DDoS attacked Taiwan’s government agencies, financial firms, and Taipei Songshan Airport. This spate of attacks merely created congestion, but helps illustrate the diverse set of attack vectors Taiwan has to cope with.
