Daily cyberattacks on Taiwan government double in 2024: NSB

Taipei, Jan. 5 (CNA) The average number of daily cyberattacks targeting Taiwan's government network doubled to 2.4 million in 2024, with China being behind most of the attacks, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released on Sunday.

Most of the cyberattacks on the government service network were detected and blocked, but the number of such hostile actions indicated "the increasingly severe nature of China's hacking activities," the NSB said.

The government service network was created to support electronic communication between different agencies and to provide online government services, such as paying taxes or checking national health or labor insurance data, to the public, the network's website said.

In its "Analysis on China's Cyberattack Techniques in 2024," the NSB said the report was released to raise public awareness about trends related to cyber threats posed by China.

No specific figures were given in the report, however, on the exact scale of Chinese cyberattacks on the government network.

According to the NSB, the national intelligence community in Taiwan reported a total of 906 cyberattack cases in 2024, an increase of more than 20 percent from the 752 cases in 2023, and more than 80 percent of the cases in 2024 involved attacks on government agencies.

Chinese cyberattacks in the field of communications, particularly the telecommunications sector, rose 650 percent in 2024, the biggest increase of any field, followed by a 70 percent increase on transportation targets and 57 percent increase on defense supply chain targets, the report said.

China was also found to have launched denial-of-service attacks on the financial and transportation sectors when it conducted military drills, to "intensify the harassment effect and military intimidation," the report said.

In addition, Chinese hackers have employed "increasingly sophisticated" techniques to steal data and infiltrate government agencies, businesses and private organizations in Taiwan, according to the NSB report.

In terms of the tactics used, Chinese hackers targeted the emails of civil servants to acquire confidential information through them, while using phishing emails, Trojans, and backdoors to infiltrate Taiwan's defense supply chain and internet service providers, the NSB said.

These attacks, according to the NSB, were aimed at compromising critical infrastructure systems, such as those for highways and ports, and to cause disruptions in Taiwan's transportation and logistics systems.

The Chinese cyber force also collaborated with private individuals and engaged in selling stolen personal data online, while also being involved in business espionage and the theft of business secrets and patented technologies for profit, the NSB said.

Sunday's report followed another one released by the NSB on Friday on China's dissemination of disinformation, which the bureau said increased 60 percent in 2024.