Russian hacker groups hit Taiwan bourse, bank in surprise attack

Russian hacker groups briefly disrupted Taiwanese financial platforms including the stock exchange and lender Mega Financial Holding Co.’s website, exposing the vulnerability of the island to foreign cyberattacks.

Two groups that go by the handles “NoName057” and “RipperSec” on Telegram swamped targeted websites with a so-called Distributed Denial of Service attack, which caused unstable connection issues for the platforms Thursday afternoon, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said Friday. During the incident, the Taiwan Stock Exchange detected web queries from overseas internet-protocol addresses at volumes several times bigger than usual, the bourse said in a separate text message to Bloomberg News.

Government websites and trading functioned normally on Friday. DDoS attacks are intended to overload systems rather than steal valuable information, and the stock exchange restored normal operations within a half-hour on Thursday. But the incident exposes the potential vulnerability of computing platforms in Taiwan, the world’s biggest producer of advanced semiconductors and a potential flashpoint in a US-China conflict.

“With regards to the attacks from NoName057 and RipperSec, the authorities are gathering the latest information and will take necessary measures,” the ministry said in its latest statement. Taiwan’s cabinet office separately condemned the cyber-attackers for causing trouble not just on the island, but across the region.

The Digital Ministry confirmed earlier reports including by local outlet Liberty Times that a Russian group had claimed responsibility on Telegram, citing analysis by researchers Radware. One of the groups, NoName057, said on their telegram channel that they targeted Taiwan because President Lai Ching-te had made comments about how, if China claims Taiwan to be its territory, Beijing should apply the same logic and take some land back from Russia.

Radware representatives didn’t respond to an email and a call to their main line in Taipei seeking comment.Taiwan has increasingly come under cyberattack from abroad in recent years, as the island’s strategic importance grows. A hacking group believed to be linked to the Chinese government stole passwords and documents from a Taiwanese government-affiliated research center that specializes in computing, cybersecurity researchers at Cisco Systems Inc. said in August.That attack highlighted the threat that cyberattacks pose to Taiwan, an island that’s been the source of escalating tension between the US and China. Beijing claims the island as part of its territory and has vowed to bring it under control.