Vice Premier Woody Duh says that the government has made considerable strides when it comes to beefing up the nation’s cybersecurity. But he says there is still much more to do.
Duh, who is also the convener of the National Information and Communication Security Taskforce, said Monday that a lot of government employees are unaware of information security threats. But he said that a new National Center for Cyber Security Technology is set to open on April 1, to deal with those issues.
Duh says that central and local governments will spend about NT$800 million (nearly US$24.5 million) to beef up cybersecurity. He says that the government will work with the private sector. That, in turn, will not only enable those companies to develop new technologies, it will also provide the government with better cybersecurity.
The new focus on cybersecurity is a reflection of changes in the nature of hacking. Duh says that in the past it was individual hackers who posed the largest cybersecurity threat. These days, he says, there have been organized efforts by hackers in places like China, who have specific political and economic intentions. That has increased since the election of Tsai Ing-wen, whose Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is wary of ties with China.
After her election in January, Tsai’s Facebook page was flooded with more than 40,000 critical messages from Chinese users. That’s despite the fact that China has banned its citizens from using Facebook.