Representative image. A Taiwanese hacking group called Anonymous 64 has been carrying out cyberattacks against targets in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, says China’s National Security Ministry
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A Taiwanese hacking group called Anonymous 64 has been carrying out cyberattacks against targets in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, China’s National Security Ministry said on Monday (September 23, 2024), urging netizens to report cases of “anti-propaganda sabotage.”

Since the beginning of this year, Anonymous 64 – which the ministry said belonged to Taiwan’s cyber warfare wing – has sought to upload and broadcast “content that denigrates the mainland’s political system and major policies,” on websites, outdoor screens and network TV stations, it said in a blog post.

Taiwan frequently accuses Chinese groups of seeking to spread online disinformation or carry out cyberattacks across the democratically governed island. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has ramped up military and political pressure against over the past five years to assert its claims.

The hacking group’s ‘X’ account said it was set up in June 2023 and showed screenshots of efforts to broadcast videos likening Chinese President Xi Jinping to an emperor, marking the second anniversary of protests against Beijing’s strict COVID curbs and commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations.

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One video was an address from an Anonymous 64 member wearing the Anonymous hacking group’s Guy Fawkes mask in the style of the graphic novel and film V for Vendetta.

Neither the ‘X’ site nor the blog post from China’s national security ministry said whether Anonymous 64 had any affiliation with the international hacking group.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council had no immediate comment.

Reuters was not immediately able to verify where the group was based or whether they had actually carried out the hacking attacks they were accused of.

In the blog post published on its official ‘WeChat’ account, the most popular social media platform in China, the national Security Ministry said its investigation into the group had found many of the websites Anonymous 64 claimed to have accessed were fake or had little no traffic, and that its posts showing it having infiltrated numerous university and media websites had been photoshopped.

The security ministry published screenshots of the group’s X account with heavily redacted text. It also said it had opened a case against three members of Taiwan’s cyber warfare wing.

“We advocate that netizens should not believe in or spread rumours and should promptly report cyberattacks or cases of anti-propaganda activity to the national security authorities,” the blog post said.

Taipei:

 Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing boat operating near China’s coast close to a Taiwan-controlled island and took it to a Chinese port, the Taiwan coast guard said late on Tuesday in a further escalation of tensions.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has ramped up pressure on Taipei since President Lai Ching-te took office in May, a man Beijing accuses of being a “separatist”.

The fishing boat was operating near the Taiwan-administered Kinmen islands, which sit next to the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou, on Tuesday night when it was boarded and seized by two Chinese maritime administration boats, Taiwan’s coast guard said.

Taiwan sent it own coast guard ships to assist and broadcast warnings asking China to release the fishing boat, but China’s ships broadcast back saying not to interfere, Taiwan’s coast guard said in a statement.

Taiwan’s ships then backed off to avoid a conflict and the Taiwanese fishing vessel was then taken to a Chinese port, it added.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not answer calls seeking comment outside of office hours.

Chinese maritime enforcement and coast guard ships have been regularly operating around Kinmen since February after two Chinese fishermen died trying to flee Taiwan’s coast guard.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)