When several official government websites in Taiwan were taken down by a series of distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) in early August, the timing was not random. The attacks — which targeted the office of Taiwan’s President, its National Defence Ministry, and its Foreign Affairs Ministry — came as U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was set to visit the island.
Unfortunately, it is another example in which DDoS attacks are used as geopolitical protest, waged to impact governments and critical infrastructure worldwide.
This uptick in attack activity mirrors the rising geopolitical tensions in the region, specifically between China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Organizations, whether government or business, don’t need to be collateral damage, because the tools and services to mitigate DDoS attacks are widely available.