Taiwan's Presidential Website Hit With DDoS Attack Ahead of Pelosi Visit
Taiwan’s Presidential website suffered a DDoS attack on Tuesday, hours before US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed on the island in a visit mainland China adamantly opposes.
The DDoS attack — which involves bombarding a site with a flood of internet traffic— occurred at 5:15pm local time and briefly caused the website for President Tsai Ing-wen to go down for about 20 minutes.
In a Facebook post, Presidential spokesman Chang Tun-Han said(Opens in a new window) the attack generated “200 times” the usual traffic to the website. In addition, the attack was sourced to internet traffic coming from outside the island’s networks.
Although it remains unclear who launched the attack, suspicion is already falling on the Chinese government, which has warned that Taiwan will face “serious consequences” for permitting Pelosi to visit the island. The Chinese government has long sought to reclaim Taiwan as part of mainland China. However, Pelosi’s visit is sparking concerns in Beijing that the US is subtly maneuvering to support Taiwan’s independence as its own nation, separate from China.
“A visit to Taiwan by her would constitute a gross interference in China’s internal affairs, seriously undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” China’s foreign minister said(Opens in a new window) on Monday, later adding: “We will make resolute response and take strong countermeasures to uphold China’s sovereignty.”
The DDoS attack may signal that China has more in store to harass Taiwan. As Pelosi landed on the island, Chinese state media reported(Opens in a new window) that the country’s Su-35 fighter jets were entering the Taiwan strait. On Monday, Chinese company Sina also mysteriously closed(Opens in a new window) its news
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