Taiwan’s opposition party revealed on Tuesday that it believes its office computers were hacked by the Chinese regime.
The Democratic Progressive Party’s staffers were sent e-mail attachments containing viruses that would monitor their computers, a DPP spokesperson told The Epoch Times in a phone interview.
The hackers made a roundabout trip starting from an IP address in mainland China traced to Beijing’s mouthpiece media, Xinhua. The route then went through Xinhua in Australia, Xinhua Malaysia, and finally entered the DPP’s e-mails, according to the statement.
Investigations showed that the Party office was also infiltrated by the IP address of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC).
The RDEC is the director of information security and the supervisor of Taiwanese government branches and ministries.
Chen Chi-mai, spokesperson for the DPP, said there were two possibilities: Either the RDEC was deliberately reading the Party’s e-mails or the IP address was used by Chinese hackers.
Chen said that the attacks “are not from individuals, in fact, they are organized strategies supported by the Chinese regime.”
If RDEC was hacked it would mean that Taiwanese government information was likely also compromised.
To ensure security, the DPP office said it will start transmitting important data by word of mouth or paper.
Beijing took heavy heat last week when computer security software company McAfee revealed that a “state actor” had over a five-year period hacked 72 parties, governments, international organizations, and companies. The Taiwanese government was listed among the victims. Although McAfee did not name the Chinese regime, the consensus of security experts is that the state perpetrator could only be China.
