Where Is the Tsai Gov’t’s "Chen Shih-chung for National Security"?

Where Is the Tsai Gov’t’s "Chen Shih-chung for National Security"?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

April 13, 2020

 Translation of an Excerpt

The Cabinet recently issued a circular banning ZOOM video conferencing software, making various ministries lose face, and schools at all levels were agitated as they were totally unprepared. Just what risks in potential information security exist in ZOOM is an issue that can be discussed. However, ironically, when the Defense Ministry received the banning order from the Cabinet, it just stopped using it. For the Interior Ministry, it was preparing a videoconference when it found that the Interior Ministry itself was using that software. The Judicial Yuan has, nevertheless, been using it for three years; only when being interpellated by legislators did it promise to change. If ZOOM indeed posed information security risks, it presents the greatest threat to national defense, police administration, and the Ministry of Interior; not to mention that the Defense Ministry has purview over the "Information/Communication Electronic Force" in charge of network warfare, hence, it shoulders responsibility for information security. When the Information/Communication Electronic Force was established a year before last, President Tsai “entrusted it as the core for network offense and defense", but the Defense Ministry and the Interior Ministry had not an iota of alert and preparedness for information security; how ridiculous could it be! Is this in fact because Taiwan is too poor in information security defense, or is it that the Cabinet’s ban was exaggerated, with political considerations overlording information security considerations?

Cabinet ministers are anxious to rally to the "anti-China" big banner of the central government; this mentality is not difficult to understand. However, the Cabinet ministers do not care about the dire situation of the grassroots, do not consider the real situation at the top political level, all the way pursuing "political correctness", fighting against the Red and against the Blue, but not against the Green, not asking about technology and not emphasizing professionalism; would this information security policy of the government truly guard national security? Where is the Tsai government’s "Chen Shih-chung for national security"?

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