China advice netizens to be on lookout for Taiwanese cyberattacks

On Monday, China’s national security ministry said that a Taiwanese hacking group known as Anonymous 64 has been conducting cyberattacks against targets in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. The government encouraged internet users to report instances of “anti-propaganda sabotage.” 

Anonymous 64, which the ministry claimed belonged to Taiwan’s cyberwarfare wing, has been trying to upload and broadcast “content that denigrates the mainland’s political system and major policies” on websites, outdoor screens, and network TV stations since the beginning of this year, the ministry said in a blog post.

Taiwan regularly charges Chinese organizations with attempting to conduct cyberattacks or disseminate false information online throughout the democratically run island. Over the past five years, China has increased political and military pressure on Taiwan in an effort to bolster its claims of sovereignty over the island. 

The X account of the hacking group claimed to have been established in June 2023. It featured screenshots of attempts to disseminate videos comparing Chinese President Xi Jinping to an emperor commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations and the second anniversary of protests against Beijing’s strict COVID curbs. 

In one video, a member of Anonymous 64 could be seen addressing the gathering while donning the Guy Fawkes mask of the hacker group, which was inspired by the graphic novel and movie V for Vendetta.

It was unclear from the X website and the blog post from China’s national security ministry whether Anonymous 64 was connected to the global hacker collective.

The Council for Mainland Affairs in Taiwan did not respond straight away.

It took some time for Reuters to confirm the group’s whereabouts and whether or not the cyber activities they were accused of were actually carried out by them.

The national security ministry revealed in a blog post on its official WeChat account—the widely used social media platform in China—that an investigation was conducted on Anonymous 64 and found out that many of the websites it claimed to have accessed were fabricated or the flow of traffic was very little. In addition, its posts claiming to have been hacked into media and university websites had been Photoshopped.

The security minister released the screenshots of the group’s X account with heavily censored text. It further declared that it has filed a lawsuit against three members of Taiwan’s cyberwarfare unit.

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