Taiwan NSB gets half million cyber attacks a month

Taiwan's top security unit said Monday it received nearly half a million cyber attacks a month, only a minority from China and around 60 percent from the island itself.

In the 10 months to October hackers launched 4.99 million attacks on the National Security Bureau's website, making it one of the government's most heavily targeted, the bureau's chief told lawmakers.

"Despite the awesome amount of attacks, no hacker has ever broken into the website," Director General Tsai Teh-sheng told parliament, in reply to a question tabled by legislator Lin Yu-fang.

During the 10-month period, hackers from China launched 598,000 attacks, or 12 percent of the total, while six in 10 attacks came from within Taiwan.

Tsai did not explain why the great majority of attacks, numbering 3.04 million, originated from within Taiwan.

Taiwan's government websites have frequently come under cyber-attacks from China, usually during disputes between the island and the mainland.

The two sides split in 1949 at the end of a civil war, but Beijing still claims the island as part of its territory.

Ties have improved markedly since Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang party won a presidential election in 2008 on a platform of ramping up trade and allowing in more Chinese tourists.

(c) 2010 AFP