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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 ‘Stealth phones’ advised for candidates
National Security Bureau Director-General Yang Kuo-chian at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday advises the presidential candidates to use “stealth phones” with anti-surveillance and encryption features. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
WHO’S WATCHING WHO? The NSB was responding to Chinese hacking concerns, but one DPP lawmaker expressed ‘trepidation’ about using a phone provided by the agency
By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
National Security Bureau （NSB） Director-General Yang Kuo-chian （楊國強） yesterday advised presidential candidates to use “stealth phones” equipped with anti-surveillance and encryption features to protect data and prevent being listened in on by wire-taps, due to mounting concerns of targeted intelligence-gathering and spying activities by Chinese state agencies and their operatives.
“If they have the need for it and are willing, the NSB will provide stealth phones to the presidential candidates,” he said during a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
It would be the first time that the bureau offers stealth phones, developed internally within the agency, for presidential candidates, because in the past, the top-level security phone devices were provided only to sitting presidents and vice presidents, heads of important ministries and ambassadors and chief envoys who were stationed in foreign countries, Yang said.
He said the software and electronics in the devices were developed by the bureau’s technical department, while the phone hardware was made by Taiwan’s HTC Corp.
“It gives excellent protection for telecommunication security. I have 100 percent confidence in it,” he added.
Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） Legislator Tsai Huang-liang （蔡煌瑯） had sounded alarms over Chinese cyberwarfare units hacking into the cellphones of Taiwanese, using apps that can steal passwords and implant malware, and even Chinese intelligence operatives targeting presidential candidates’ personal mobile phones to listen in on conversations and secretly monitor their daily campaign activities.
“We have removed the GPS mechanism in the phones, and those embedded inside the processors, so it cannot be tracked by China’s global navigation technology, such as the Chinese BeiDou Satellite system （北斗衛星導航系統）,” Yang said, adding that the NSB stealth phone can provide top-level security protection with its anti-surveillance, anti-interception and encryption features.
However, presidential candidates have yet apply for the device, he added.
DPP Legislator Huang Wei-che （黃偉哲） said in response: “I would have trepidation about using the stealth phone provided by the NSB during highly sensitive political situations.”
Meanwhile, pointing to media reports about threats of violence against certain candidates in recent weeks, DPP Legislator Chiu Chih-wei （邱志偉） asked Yang to implement the bureau’s security measures to guard the safety of presidential candidates immediately.
Yang said that according to election law, the personal bodyguard security measure, with several 55-member teams of NSB special service officers, can only start their work on Nov. 23, the date for each party’s presidential and vice presidential ticket to officially register with the Central Election Commission.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
