China, Taiwan trade accusations over cyberattacks

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By Liz Lee and Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese public security authorities attributed a cyberattack on an unnamed technology company to the Taiwan government on Tuesday, prompting the latter to blame China for spreading disinformation over such breaches.

The “overseas hacker organisation” behind the attack was “supported by” Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), authorities in the capital of southern Guangdong province said in a statement, based on an initial police investigation.

The DPP is the ruling party in Taiwan.

Taiwan’s National Security Bureau in turn accused the Communist Party of China (CPC), which it called “a source of global information security threat”, of peddling false information about cyber breaches.

It said in a statement to Reuters that the CPC was “manipulating inaccurate information to confuse the outside world, so as to cover up the related cyber hacking acts” and shift the focus of attention.

China claims Taiwan as its territory even as the democratic and separately governed island rejects that claim.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, who last week marked one year in office, has said only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that a police investigation found the hacker organisation targeted network systems in more than 10 provinces in China in recent years, including military, energy, hydropower, transportation and government networks.

Xinhua, citing technical experts, said the attacks were of “low technical level”, their method “simple and crude.”

Taiwan’s security authority said: “The CPC has long carried out cyber hacking and theft of funds from Taiwan, disseminated false information, and carried out cognitive warfare in an attempt to destroy Taiwan’s critical infrastructure and create social division and antagonism.”

(Reporting by Liz Lee and Shanghai newsroom, and Ben Blanchard in Taiwan; Editing by Tom Hogue and Sophie Walker)