Cyberattacks Broke Out in Taiwan as the Protest against Nancy Pelosi Visit
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05-Aug-2022
The US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi had visited to
Taiwan this week which antagonized Beijing. Well, the welcome she had received from government officials and the public when she visited was in sharp contrast with the message that started to pop up from somewhere on the island.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Nancy Pelosi, US House of Representatives Speaker visited to Taiwan
- An unprecedented amount of cyberattacks broke out in protest against Pelosi's visit
- Chinese activist hackers were blamed for cyberattacks rather than Chinese government
On Wednesday, in some 7-11 convenience stores of Taiwan, the television screens which were placed behind cashiers had suddenly switched and started to display 'Warmonger Pelosi, get out of Taiwan!'
The Taiwanese authorities have claimed that the largest 24-hours convenience store chains have been the victim of an unprecedented amount of cyberattacks in the protest against Pelosi's visit. The
cyberattacks were especially on the government websites which belonged to the presidential office, foreign and defence ministries along with the infrastructure such as screens at railway stations.
The Chinese government has not been directly blamed by the Taipei he has mentioned that the attacks on government websites had paralysed the sites' operations which had been originated from addresses in
China and Russia. It has even mentioned that the firms whose displays got changed were using the Chinese software they claimed that it contained backdoors or
Trojan horse malware.
The volume of cyberattacks on Taiwan government units which broke out on Tuesday before and during the Pelosi's arrival had surpassed 15,000 gigabites which was 23 times higher than the earlier records, as mentioned by the Taiwan's Digital MinisterAudrey Tang.
Taiwan's Cabinet spokesperson, Lo Ping- Cheng, had mentioned on Wednesday that the government was found to step up the security at key infrastructure that included power plants and airports and the cyber security alertness level across government offices were increased. He had mentioned on Thursday that no related damage has been claimed yet.
A cybersecurity research organisation has mentioned that the attacks which were against the Taiwanese government websites before Pelosi's visit were mostly launched by Chinese activist hackers and not by the China government.
The Western authorities have accused the Hacker group APT 27 for being a Chinese state-sponsored group. It has claimed the responsibility for the cyberattacks on Taiwan which broke out on Wednesday. They have mentioned on the YouTube that they had done such things to protest the way Pelosi had defied China's warnings with her visit. It has even claimed that it had shut down around 60,000 internet-connected devices in Taiwan.