Taiwan confirms AI-driven attack after Israeli firm investigation | #hacking | #cybersecurity | #infosec | #comptia | #pentest | #ransomware

Taiwan detected AI-assisted cyberattacks on government ⁠agencies last month coming from overseas but the affected bodies successfully “handled” the incident, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said on Thursday. Taiwan has in recent years complained about what it sees as China’s “hybrid warfare” — from daily military drills near the island to disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks — as Beijing ramps up military and political pressure on the democratically governed island to force Taipei to accept its claims of sovereignty.

Chinese cyberattacks on Taiwan’s key infrastructure from hospitals to banks rose 6% in 2025 from the previous year to an average of 2.63 million attacks a day, the island’s National Security Bureau said in January, adding some of the hacks were synchronised with military drills in “hybrid threats” to paralyse the island.

In a statement, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said its cybersecurity monitoring units detected the “abnormal attack” targeting government agencies in July, and beginning July 20, its National Institute of Cyber Security issued a series of warning alerts while it investigated.

The investigation results showed the attacks displayed clear characteristics of an “overseas ⁠source”, with hackers employing a hybrid approach that combined manual operations with AI agent-assisted attacks, such as Open Claw, it said.

“The relevant attack sources, methods, and scope of impact have all been fully investigated, and the affected units have successively completed their handling,” the ministry added.

In response to this new type of AI-derived cybersecurity threat, the government has established protective guidelines ⁠and strengthened system monitoring across agencies to block attacks early, it said.

The statement did not mention China, and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the attack.