Taiwan is experiencing millions of cyberattacks every day, writes Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy in the Centre for Cyber Resilience and Trust at Deakin University, adding that “other countries worried about the impact of cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns on their elections and democratic institutions should be paying attention”.
In recent years, China has used a variety of “grey zone” tactics to pressure Taiwan to accept the Communist Party’s attempts at unification. This has included an onslaught of cyberattacks, which not only pose a significant threat to Taiwan’s national security but also seek to undermine its democratic processes.
These attacks range from phishing attempts to sophisticated malware intrusions. Website defacement attacks and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are often seen during significant events, such as the August 2022 visit of Nancy Pelosi, then-speaker of the US House of Representatives. Government agencies, educational institutions, convenience stores and train stations are among the targets.
Using AI tools such as Capcut, developed by the Chinese technology giant ByteDance, the book’s developers also produced and disseminated fake news videos for social media. Featuring AI-generated voices and fake news anchors, these videos were produced with alarming efficiency and promptly replaced if they were taken down by platforms.
Furthermore, rumours circulated on social media about DPP presidential candidate Lai Ching-te having illegitimate sons, and other candidates having extramarital affairs. The videos used deepfake technologies to make the claims appear more real to deceive the public.
Orchestrated disinformation campaigns are becoming more sophisticated and widespread, especially with the support of generative AI and deepfake software. And their potential to influence public opinion or fuel political polarisation could gradually weaken Taiwan’s democracy and create instability.
And these tactics can also be replicated elsewhere. Other countries worried about the impact of cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns on their elections and democratic institutions should be paying attention.
These attacks range from phishing attempts to sophisticated malware intrusions. Website defacement attacks and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are often seen during significant events
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And these tactics can also be replicated elsewhere. Other countries worried about the impact of cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns on their elections and democratic institutions should be paying attention.
These tactics are already being replicated elsewhere. This has been the normal Internet background noise for years. This is not news.
However, just as in 2014 when Russia was preparing for Crimea annexation, the amount of targeted (cyber and kinetic) escalated. Same again before Ukraine invasion. That’s what we should be paying attention to - not everyday “millions of cyberattacks” or hybrid misinformation war - those are already happening. and should be handled as basic boring Internet hygiene.We should be building resilience against targeted pre-invasion cyber. We should be building ways to take down drones, we should be building robust satellite communication networks so we don’t have to rely on kindness of tech billionaires. We should find more robust ways of navigating because GPS is too easy target.
In short, we should be learning from the Ukraine conflict, which is the first (and currently only) real live theater for cyberwarfare.
