Taiwan's Government Websites Attacked Just Before Pelosi’s Visit

Tensions in Asia have increased after the website of Taiwan’s presidential office suffered an ‘overseas cyber attack’. 

Taiwanese government websites experienced cyber attacks on Tuesday 2nd August, just before the visit by the American House speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, the government has said.

The attacks hit at least four websites, those of President Tsai Ing-wen, the National Defence Ministry, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the country’s largest airport. 

The attack came in advance  of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei, which the Chinese government warned would have serious consequences. Shortly after Pelosi’s arrival, China launched high visibility and intentionally threatening joint military manoeuvres near Taiwan's coastline and airspace.

Taiwan’s presidential office which was attacked several hours before Pelosi’s arrived.  The site’s traffic shot up to 200 times that of a normal day, leaving the website unable to display any content for 20 minutes, suggesting a big DDoS attack. It resumed normal operation after the problems were fixed, according to a statement.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry website and the main portal website for Taiwan’s government also experienced cyber attacks, according to Joanne Ou, spokeswoman for Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry. On Wednesday 3rd August, the websites appeared to have resumed operation. The Ministry of National Defence and the website of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where Pelosi’s plane landed, were also affected although they were also restored shortly after her departure, according to reports.

In the past, Taiwanese websites, particularly those of the governing Democratic Progressive Party, have been hit by Chinese hackers, often at times of critical moments, like elections and country crises.  

Although nobody has claimed responsibility for the outages it cannot be certain they were connected to Nancy Pelosi’s trip, commentators have warned that China might use cyber attacks to signal its displeasure over the visit.

A spokesman for the Presidential Office said it would continue to strengthen its monitoring and ensure the security and stable operation of major infrastructure in the face of the “continued compound information operations by foreign forces.” 

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