Taiwan's financial sector hit by major cyberattack: Here's what happened
Taiwan's financial sector has been significantly disrupted due to a widespread cyberattack. The attack targeted several crucial platforms including the Taiwan Stock Exchange and Mega Financial Holding Co., temporarily disabling their websites. Local media sources have attributed this attack to foreign agents. The assault was carried out using a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) method, which inundated the targeted websites with an overwhelming amount of web traffic.
Attack led to operational difficulties for targeted platforms
The DDoS attack resulted in unstable connections and operational challenges for the targeted platforms during the afternoon. Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs reported that the Taiwan Stock Exchange experienced a spike in web queries from overseas IP addresses, leading to significantly higher traffic than usual. Despite these disruptions, government websites and trading operations were able to resume normal function by Friday.
Russian hacking group claims responsibility
The Digital Ministry has not disclosed specific details about the origins of the attack. However, local media outlet Liberty Times reported that a Russian hacking group claimed responsibility for the incident on Telegram. This information was based on an analysis conducted by cybersecurity firm Radware. Despite this claim, no official confirmation has been provided by Taiwanese authorities regarding the perpetrators of this cyberattack.
Cyberattack exposes Taiwan's computing infrastructure vulnerability
The cyberattack has exposed the vulnerability of Taiwan's computing infrastructure, which is crucial to the global semiconductor industry. The Ministry of Digital Affairs confirmed that the disruptions were indeed caused by DDoD attacks and pledged to monitor the situation closely. This incident underscores potential risks faced by Taiwan due to its strategic significance in global technology supply chains and ongoing geopolitical tensions with China.
