05.10.2020
09:08
The crime compromises the privacy of half of the island's workforce. The information was put up for sale on the dark web for values ranging between USD 500 and USD 1,000 and they fear that it will be used by Beijing, which claims the territory of Taipei as its own
October 5, 2020 Share on FacebookShare Share on TwitterTweet Share on WhatsAppShare
The stolen information was put up for sale on the dark web REUTERS / Kacper Pempel /
Chinese hackers are suspected of breaching the network of an online job board in Taiwan last week and stealing the personal data of more than 5.92 million job seekers, according to the Taipei Times , referring to a preliminary investigation by officials from National security.
Considering that Taiwan has an active population of 12 million people, this hack affected almost half of this segment of the population, which implies that it is one of the largest cybersecurity incidents in the country. .
The stolen information was put up for sale on the dark web, under the account name “rootkit”. The data was offered at values ranging from $ 500 to $ 1,000 , said authorities, who happened to find this post during a search on the deep web on Saturday night.
The leaked information included file numbers, national identification card numbers of job applicants, names, gender, birthdays, email addresses, landline and mobile numbers, as well as user names for accounts and addresses.
It is believed that the hackers who stole this information and now offer it for sale would be of Chinese origin because they wrote the publication where they account for this crime in simplified Chinese.
Investigators fear that this information could be used by the Communist Party of China for propaganda purposes. For now they have already issued warnings and are carrying out a thorough investigation of the case to have more information regarding the possible consequences of this hack and the motivations behind those responsible.
This is not the first time that Taiwan has denounced Chinese interference in its networks. On August 20, the government said that Chinese hackers infiltrated some 6,000 email accounts of ten Taiwanese government agencies. “We make this public because we want to alert everyone to the threat and prevent further damage,” Liu Chia-zung, deputy director of the Cyber Security Investigation Office at the island's Investigation Office, said at the time.
Taipei has accused Beijing of escalating a cyber campaign since 2016, when Taiwan elected President Tsai Ing-wen, who refuses to acknowledge Beijing's insistence that the self-governing democratic island is part of “one China.”
According to the Cybersecurity Investigation Office of the Taiwan Investigation Bureau, two well-known Chinese hacker groups – Blacktech and Taidoor – have been targeting government departments and information service providers since 2018.
