Taiwan

Taiwan’s National Centre for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) has launched what it claims to be the world’s first free malware database designed to help businesses, academics and researchers better identify and defend against criminally-coded attacks.

The centre, one of the 11 which comprise Taiwan’s National Applied Research Laboratories, teamed up with the Ministry of Education and 20 universities back in 2010 to kick off the ambitious project, according to the country’s Central News Agency (CNA).

Taiwan's National Security Bureau (NSB) has released a report which states China's cyberarmy has grown and shifted to targets its think tanks and critical infrastructure.

According to The Taipei Times on Sunday, the report to be presented at a legislative hearing with the Ministry of National Defense and Criminal Investigation Bureau officials on Monday, states that since 2002, China had expanded its cyberarmy and now has more than 100,000 people working for it.

In response to what Taiwan claims is a growing cyber threat from China, it has set up a unit to create a comprehensive Internet shield against hackers, the country's intelligence chief has said.

Tsai Teh-sheng, head of the island's National Security Bureau, described the perceived cyber threat from China as 'very severe', after he was asked to evaluate it in parliament by Kuomintang legislator Lin Yu-fang.

Finnish handset maker Nokia Oyj yesterday said that five of its Taiwanese Web sites were hacked earlier this month, giving hackers access to the personal data of local consumers.

No classified data of Nokia’s local consumers were involved in the incident. No credit card details, ID numbers or medical information were leaked, the company said in a statement.

With increasing numbers of cyberattacks targeting Taiwan, the US and Japan being traced back to China, the government has increased its budget for cyberwarfare capabilities, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a report on Friday.

While implementing cuts in personnel from all other military departments and branches to lower expenditures for the future implementation of a voluntary military service, the ministry is expanding its Communication Electronics and Information Bureau (CEIB) to include a specialist group for electronic and Internet warfare.

Three Taiwanese nationals and their Filipino cohort were arrested last week for allegedly running a call bypass fraud syndicate from their condo units in Makati City, Philippines.

The arrests were made by the National Bureau of Immigration on a complaint from Smart Communications Inc.

A Taiwanese company, AU Optronics Corp had two of its top executives charged and found guilty of violating anti-trust laws by working with competitors in inflating prices of liquid crystal display screens used in computers and televisions.

Federal jurors in San Francisco on Tuesday convicted AU Optronics Corp., its U.S. subsidiary and executives Hsuan Bin Chen and Hui Hsiung (shuhng). Six other Asian LCD screen makers have pleaded guilty to charges related to price fixing and have been ordered to pay fines totalling more than $860 million. 

Taiwan, Myanmar, and the US held the top three spots on Akamai’s list of sources of malicious internet traffic in the second quarter of 2011, accounting for 27% of observed malicious traffic combined.

Taiwan jumped to first, displacing Myanmar, which held the top spot in the first quarter of this year. That was the first time Myanmar had appeared on the Akamai top 10 list of malicious internet traffic originators.

A Taiwanese political party suspects the Chinese government is behind a hacking attack that stole information about the party's election activities.

Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said on Tuesday that some of the attacks had been traced to China's Xinhua News Agency, a state-run press group. The attack operated as a phishing campaign, in which hackers impersonating other party employees sent DPP staffers email messages that asked the recipients to open attached files, which secretly contained viruses to monitor the computers, a DPP spokesperson said.