People have long followed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s example of taping a piece of paper over their notebook’s camera to ensure their privacy, and Chinese manufacturer Huawei’s plans for the U. S. market have likely been permanently derailed by chronic rumors that its devices send private information straight back to the Chinese government. Yet the…
Declaring that “information security is national security,” President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration has made considerable progress fulfilling promises to beef up Taiwan’s cybersecurity defenses as well as to spur development of the home-grown cybersecurity sector. A Department of Cybersecurity was established in 2016 as an official unit under the Executive Yuan, upgraded from its previous incarnation…
“White hat” hackers and cyber-cops fight crime in Taiwan’s heavily attacked cyberspace. Cybercrime is a growing problem in Taiwan and around the world, cybersecurity experts and law enforcement officers agree. “It’s absolutely on the rise because everything is connected to the internet – you can shop online, can do anything,” says Wu Fu-mei, acting director…
The situation is seen not only as a threat to be defended against, but also as an opportunity to build new lines of business. Globally 2017 saw a surge in cyberattacks that raised the alarm over cybersecurity. Among the most sensational incidents were the WannaCry ransomware hack that infected 230,000 computers in 150 countries, including…
The episode revealed deep-seated problems in the defense-contracting process. In February, Kaohsiung prosecutors indicted four executives and one consultant of the Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co., charging them with fraud, breach of trust, and violation of banking laws. If convicted, the defendants could face prison sentences ranging from 20 to 30 years, although the prosecution has…
An unflagging focus on stability, sometimes at the expense of reform, defined Perng Fai-nan’s two decades as head of Taiwan’s Central Bank. In Perng Fai-nan’s two decades of service as Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) before his retirement in February, the New Taiwan dollar’s value held steady, rarely deviating…
Proponents see big opportunities for Taiwan in this nascent space. Virtual currency fever swept the globe over the past year, peaking when Bitcoin’s value hit US$19,500 in December. Since that zenith, the preeminent cryptocurrency’s value has plummeted to just $10,000, illustrating its extreme volatility. Bitcoin is the best known cryptocurrency, but over a thousand have…
Banks remain cautious about embracing full-throated digitization. Customers of Taiwan’s domestic banks sometimes feel like they’re in a time warp. Basic savings accounts often are not automatically equipped with online banking – customers have to request that service. And in many cases, the standard means of tracking account activity is a passbook that must be…
Taiwan has set admirable goals for cleaning up soil and groundwater pollution. But are overly rigorous standards actually inhibiting site remediation? The CPC Corporation’s massive Kaohsiung refinery complex ceased operations in December 2015 as promised by the state-owned oil company in 1990 (when it was known as the Chinese Petroleum Corp.). Then Premier Hau Pei-tsun…
Taiwan’s government has ambitious goals for dramatically reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in line with global standards. Although Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and did not sign the Paris Accord, Taiwan has nevertheless developed its own plan to dramatically reduce its carbon footprint in…
