Taipei: The Taipei District Prosecutors Office has indicted two employees and an outside contractor of Radio Taiwan International (RTI) for their alleged involvement in a cyberattack against the station's official website in September.
According to Focus Taiwan, the suspects include engineer Wu Cheng-hsun, his manager Yueh Chao-chu, and Huang Fu-lin, who was associated with the systems maintenance contractor for RTI. The indictment document reveals that the group orchestrated cyberattacks against RTI as early as June. Wu reportedly provided Huang with an account granting the highest level of access to the RTI website, enabling Huang to offer technical support and erase records of Wu's activities on the site.
Prosecutors further explained that Yueh, aware of Wu's actions, neither intervened nor reported them to higher authorities. On August 20, Wu manipulated the parameters of RTI's website, altering its Japanese main page to display simplified Chinese or unintelligible characters, which disrupted the website's signal. Subsequently, on September 11, 18, 19, and 20, Wu replaced the main site content with the book cover of "The 'Retaking the Mainland' by Taiwanese Government: The Concept of Chinese Unification by the ROC" and changed the banner to feature the flags of the People's Republic of China and the United States.
Even after questioning on September 26, Wu accessed the RTI website again, further disrupting its functionality, showing no remorse for his actions, prosecutors said. Wu and Yueh justified their actions by claiming suspicions of Chinese capital interference with the RTI website. Prosecutors stated that Wu's actions not only damaged RTI's credibility but also disrupted its operations. While local media reported Wu's claim of exposing system vulnerabilities, the images he uploaded exacerbated tensions across the Taiwan Strait, posing significant risks beyond ordinary criminal offenses.
Prosecutors highlighted that Wu's plan to target the site on October 10, Taiwan's National Day, carried profound symbolic implications. As Taiwan's sole government-operated radio station broadcasting internationally, RTI is classified as Level-A key infrastructure under the Regulations on Classification of Cyber Security Responsibility Levels. Therefore, any disruption to its systems has widespread implications on national interest, public welfare, and morale.
In a related development, RTI announced in a news report that its personnel review committee decided in October to terminate Wu's employment and issue a major demerit to Yueh for his supervisory failures.