Taiwan's government departments suffered an average of 2.4 million cyberattacks per day in 2024. China was behind most of them.
Taiwan's National Security Bureau reported this.
Last year's number of cyberattacks on the government network was twice the average daily rate of 1.2 million attacks in 2023. Chinese hackers have typically targeted telecommunications, transportation, and defense.
China routinely denies involvement in hacking attacks, but they are often blamed by foreign governments, including the United States, which last week said Chinese hackers stole documents from the U.S. Treasury Department.
A Taiwanese report said China conducted some of the cyberattacks in conjunction with Chinese military exercises around the island. The hackers launched DDoS attacks to disrupt access to the websites of Taiwan's transportation and financial institutions. Taiwanese officials believe that all this was to «enhance the effect of persecution and military intimidation».
China has also attacked the emails of Taiwanese government officials and attempted to steal confidential information, as well as — penetrate and compromise Taiwan's key infrastructure, including highways and ports.