Hackers Attack Computers in the Mayor’s Office of Taipei

Wantchinatimes.com reported on 15th April, 2015 quoting an official of Taipei city government as saying "The desktop belonging to Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je's secretary was recently hacked."

Wantchinatimes.com reported on 15th April, 2015 quoting Lee Wei-bin, Information Technology Commissioner of the city, as saying "a hacker installed a computer Trojan into the computer of the secretary in the beginning of April and asked for personal details of all advisers of another department of the city."

Lee said that officials of the department alerted Ko's secretary about the doubtful letter of request who authenticated that the secretary did not make any such request.

According to Lee, an initial investigation revealed that the hacked system had also been employed to attack 11 other systems but they failed.

Lee added that security pundits will next check systems at the residence of Ko to ensure that they have not been compromised.

He (Lee) remarked after Ko himself disclosed the happening during a question-answer session of the City Council.

DIT says that the hack originated from mainland China. Initially, the department had decided to remain silent about the hacking attempt in trying to trace the person who planted it. "It may be difficult to continue the investigation because the incident has already been reported to the press".

Chinapost.com.tw published news on 15th April, 2015 quoting Sidney Lin, Spokesman of Taipei City Government, as saying "city government has increased its network security to ensure that no information will be leaked and the matter will be investigated further."

Chinapost.com.tw published news on 15th April, 2015 stating that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Councilor Hsu Shu-hua condemned DIT and questioned about the safety and security of the network of the Taipei City Government and demanded a clear explanation from the department.

Moreover, this is not the first time that China has been accused of hacking. FireEye, a security firm, recently exposed details of a decade-long campaign of cyber-espionage which was carried out by China targeting journalists, governments and businesses based in India and South East Asia. FireEye dubbed it APT30 and the group is supported by experienced software developers following well-organised practices in developing software.

» SPAMfighter News - 4/22/2015