from CHINA NEWS, 13 August 1999
The hacker war between Taiwan and China intensified yesterday with a hard strike at the National Assembly's Web site, damaging not only software but also a mainframe computer.
Taipei Prosecutor Chang Shao-pin confirmed the attack, which was more serious from previous attacks that simply changed some Web pages. The hacker used an "attack program" that caused software and hardware to fail. National Assembly officials closed the site and reported the case to police.
Chen Chuan, the National Assembly secretary-general, said it was the second time the chamber's Web site has been invaded by hackers who planted China's flag on the page. The first intrusion took place on August 10. That problem was cleared up in 10 minutes. This time repair work is expected to take three days. A new firewall will be installed to protect against future attacks, said Wang Chia-hua, director of the National Assembly public relations office.
The attack on the National Assembly site yesterday was similar to an attack on the Pingtung County Government's Web site on Sunday. In both cases, the hackers changed the passwords in an effort to keep the sites from being repaired. National Assembly officials discovered the problem early and shut down the computer right away, Chen said. The site's internal data was not entirely damaged by the hacker, he said.
Taiwanese hackers, for their part, launched their seventh attack on Chinese computer networks, successfully hacking into the Pingyang National Tax Bureau's Web site and leaving the words "serious warning" and "China should stop playing with fire; we will declare independence should you dare to attack us."
While there are no signs that Taiwanese hackers are calling for a cease-fire in the cyber war, the Taiwan Hackers Backlash Alliance has urged local hackers to refrain from destroying Chinese computers and data while launching their attacks.
Democratic Progressive Party legislator Li Wen-chung warned that Taiwan should not underrate China's information technology potential. "They have been preparing since 1985," he said, adding that information warfare will play a vital role in wars in the future.
He proposed establishing an Information Warfare Center-involving the Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Transportation and Communications-to enhance Taiwan's ability to counter future challenges. He said Taiwan should learn from last month's nearly islandwide blackout and realize its vulnerability.
Copyright 1999 China News
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