《TAIPEI TIMES》Error reveals military shortcomings

DISCONCERTING: The incident exposed a lack of safeguards, as the subcontractor’s staff could upload software onto military equipment directly, technology experts said

By Wu Su-wei and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

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A technical failure caused by a Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology subcontractor revealed shortcomings in the military’s troubleshooting capabilities and hardware management, a source said yesterday.

The military-run institute had commissioned Loop Telecommunication International Inc （星通資訊） to help implement an information technology project for the Ministry of National Defense, said the source, who commented on the condition of anonymity.

The company uploaded new firmware and software for network management onto the system in advance, without obtaining approval, thinking that it could quickly complete the upgrades by rebooting the system once it received the ministry’s authorization, the source said.

However, the system reboot was delayed due to the annual Han Kuang military exercises, which are scheduled to run from tomorrow to Friday, the source said.

The ministry’s Communications, Electronics and Information Division on Monday found that about 30 pieces of equipment were experiencing circuit malfunctions after an automatic reboot.

The company was called in to examine the problem and it discovered that the software uploaded in advance had begun functioning prematurely after the reboot, although the functions the software was meant to access had not yet been enabled, the source said.

The incident affected the ministry and the Joint Operations Command Center, and blinded the Air Force Combat Command, as it could not identify friendly and enemy air units for some time, a separate source said.

The incident showed that there was a lack of safeguards in place, as Loop Telecommunication International’s engineers were able to upload software onto military equipment directly, information technology experts said.

It is also disconcerting that the Communications, Electronics and Information Division was unable to handle the problem on its own and had to summon the subcontractor, which bodes ill for the military in times of war, the experts said.

The institute and the ministry had not commented on the issue as of press time last night.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES