FIREEYE’S PERSPECTIVE:The nation’s geopolitical position and high-tech industries make tempting targets, officials from a US cybersecurity firm said

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 18, 2017
By: Chen Bing-hung and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Taiwanese political and financial institutions are likely to be targeted by sophisticated hacker operations with pecuniary or political agendas, US-based cybersecurity company FireEye said on Tuesday.

Due to rising political uncertainty on a global scale, cyberespionage would intensify with the aim of obtaining high-value intelligence and information that could serve as leverage in political negotiations, FireEye director of cybersecurity training Patrick Walsh, a retired US admiral and former commander of the US Pacific Fleet, said in Taipei.

Taiwan’s geopolitical position and high-tech industries are tempting targets for Internet-based attacks that might exploit the security gaps in the nation’s Internet of Things, Walsh said.

The hacking of First Commercial Bank automated teller machines and securities traders are likely to be followed by more sophisticated and targeted attacks, as cybercrime proves more lucrative than the drug trade, he said.    [FULL  STORY]