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Citizens in Taiwan are finding out about China's military actions off their coast: meanwhile, hackers are penetrating many systems
Photo: Noel Celis/AFP
The visit of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan not only caused military tensions, but also a huge wave of cyber attacks against the island state.
At least some hackers made no secret of their goal: In many stores of the supermarket chain "7-Eleven" a direct message to the US politician could be read: "War monger Pelosi, get out of Taiwan" was written on the screens behind the tills.
In addition to the supermarket chain, government websites and train station systems were also targeted.
Where the attackers did not have direct access, they tried to overload the systems with artificially generated data traffic.
According to Digital Minister Audrey Tang, the current DDOS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service) are said to have reached 23 times the previous record value.
However, no permanent damage was recorded.
The government of Taiwan does not hold China directly responsible for the attacks.
On YouTube, a group called “APT-27” claimed responsibility for some actions.
She justified the attacks by saying that Pelosi ignored China's warnings.
The group had previously been suspected of having direct ties to the Chinese state apparatus.
While the government in Beijing has not officially commented on the Internet attacks, the People's Republic leaves no doubt as to its determination.
In the course of China's military maneuvers off the coast of Taiwan, Chinese missiles are said to have landed in a Japanese economic zone after Pelosi's departure.
tmk/reuters