Russian hackers attack Taiwanese government in response to president’s comments

A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government after it unofficially suggested Beijing should have a territorial dispute with Russia.

The hacker group, called “NoName057,” launched an HTTPs flood attack targeting the government of Taiwan and its financial units this week, cybersecurity company Radware told the Liberty Times.

The hackers themselves mentioned on the dark web that local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu, and Taoyuan were attacked – their websites were down for a while but are now back up.

On Telegram, the hacker group is still bragging about the attacks that appear to be ongoing. NoName057 usually targets countries that criticize Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – in the past, governmental websites in Canada and Czechia.

This time, it seems to be retaliating against Taiwan’s president William Lai who recently suggested that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia.

Speaking on television last week, Lai said that China's aim of annexing Taiwan was not driven by concerns for “territorial integrity.”

“If it is really about territorial integrity, why don't they take back the land that was signed away and occupied by Russia in the Treaty of Aigun?” Lai asked, referring to the 1858 treaty signed by the Qing Dynasty that ceded about 600,000km² of land in Manchuria to the Russian empire.

Beijing is threatening to annex Taiwan because it wants to “transform the rules-based global order” and “achieve hegemony,” not because of concerns over territorial integrity, said Lai.

NoName057 was quick to respond. On Telegram, the hacker group called Taiwan, officially called the Republic of China, a “satellite country” and added that Lai’s statements reflected the “virtual reality” such states are “immersed” in.

“One of our tasks is to remind such Taiwanese that they are just a pawn in this game, taking advantage of US protectionism in the international arena. Beijing’s control over the island is only a matter of time,” said NoName057.

So far, tensions between China and Taiwan haven’t materialized into a larger military conflict. Yet while the guns are silent, keyboards are not – researchers have long said that the number of national-level cyberattacks is constantly increasing.