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what kind of force is this "information and communications army"?

on september 23, the ministry of state security issued a statement exposing a hacker group called "anonymous 64". this hacker group frequently launched cyber attacks and carried out sabotage activities against mainland china, hong kong and macau.

however, unlike some hacker groups that bring their own food, this "anonymous 64" is actually organized! it is affiliated with the cyber ​​environment analysis center of the cyber ​​warfare wing under the taiwan information and communications technology army.

▲image source: xinhuanet

many people may be confused when they see this name. they have only heard of the air force and the navy before. what the hell is this "information and communications technology army"?

in fact, this army has a great background.

we all know that in the early days after chiang kai-shek fled to taiwan, psychological warfare work was always the responsibility of the "political work bureau of the ministry of national defense". in 1963, the organization was renamed the "general political warfare department" and was affiliated with the general staff headquarters (later changed to the ministry of national defense).

of course, the main roles of this force are, first, to oppose the mainland, and second, to oppose taiwan independence.

but what? after chen shui-bian came to power, this organization was not well received. first, it was renamed the "political warfare bureau", then the director was demoted from general to lieutenant general, its functions were greatly weakened, and its funding was reduced again and again.

the "surrender instant noodles" and "surrender egg rolls" that once became laughing stocks on the mainland were actually jokes made by this political warfare bureau.

at the same time, the democratic progressive party, which started out relying on propaganda and psychological warfare, has also begun to cultivate its own cognitive warfare capabilities.

at the end of 2000, chen shui-bian had just been in office for half a year when he planned to establish his own cyber psychological warfare unit. moreover, in order to avoid the original political warfare situation and start anew, he chose the "unified communications command", a third-level agency directly under the original "taiwan ministry of defense", and renamed it the "communications information command."

the name is "communication information".it looks like a communications unit, but it's actually doing hacker and troll activities.

in 2004, chen shui-bian was re-elected and strengthened this force again. he ordered the "communications and information command" to be renamed the "information and electronics operations command", which became one of the four directly affiliated agencies of the general staff, on par with the "military intelligence bureau" and other institutions. it is directly supervised and controlled by the chief of the general staff, with a total of 2,300 people.

during ma ying-jeou's tenure, this force was no longer taken seriously and soon suffered a great loss.

in 2014, the "sunflower student movement" broke out in taiwan. to put it bluntly, it was a color revolution. the democratic progressive party, anti-blue figures and opinion leaders unscrupulously colluded online and escalated the incident by spreading rumors on the internet. eventually, they instigated thousands of students to occupy the taiwan authorities' legislative body, making the kuomintang embarrassed.

two years later, the dpp successfully reversed the election situation with this incident. since then, the dpp has realized how powerful it is to control public opinion in today's internet age.

therefore, soon after tsai ing-wen came to power in 2017, she began to integrate the institutions related to "cyber warfare", integrating the information, communication, and electronic forces of the "deputy chief of intelligence staff office" and "ministry of national defense telecommunications development office" of the joint staff headquarters, and upgraded the "information and electronics operations command" to the "information, communications and electronics force command", abbreviated as icefcom, which became the "fourth military branch" besides the army, navy and air force. this shows how much importance tsai ing-wen attaches to it.

tsai ing-wen said that this force can effectively safeguard taiwan's "information security," but to put it bluntly, she just wants to control a propaganda warfare force that directly obeys the dpp. after all, in taiwan's democratically elected politics, whoever can control the cyber army, lead the agenda, guide the direction of the public opinion, suppress the other side, and influence the polls has already won more than half the battle.

after the establishment of the information and communications army, it began to recruit soldiers on a large scale.

taiwan's green media reported that those who have international cybersecurity certificates such as "lpt penetration testing expert certification" and "ceh hacker technology expert", or those who have won the top ten in important international cybersecurity competitions, are all eligible for recruitment.

in addition, taiwan's national defense university polytechnic institute, the army, navy, and air force military academies all offer hacker courses, and hold cybersecurity attack and defense competitions regularly every year to accumulate hacker experience and select outstanding candidates to join the information and communications technology army. every time the recruitment season comes, the information and communications technology army will also conduct recruitment propaganda in major universities in taiwan.

in terms of treatment, the information and communications corps also has higher benefits than other branches of the military. in addition to the fixed benefits for soldiers, there are also monthly bonuses for projects such as "national army information service allowance - cyber ​​warfare service", "national army combat air traffic control officer service allowance" and "communications corps combat unit allowance". the bonuses range from nt$3,000 to nt$50,000. simply put, "the more you work, the more you pay", which is much better than other troops who receive fixed salaries.

in recent years, although the total strength of the taiwan military has decreased, the information and communications technology army has continued to adjust its organization and expand its manpower, and now has a strength of 6,000! moreover, its organization is very special. in addition to the headquarters, it has two regiments and a center.

the first wing is the information and communications brigade, which consists of the first, second, and third information and communications support battalions and the hualien and kinmen information and communications operations teams, all of which were originally information and communications operation companies of the various regional commands.

the second wing is the cyber ​​operations wing, which consists of the command and protection brigade and the cyber ​​operations brigade. the taiwanese hackers exposed by the mainland this time belong to this "cyber ​​operations brigade."

in addition, there is an electronic warfare center, which is responsible for formulating electronic warfare plans, promoting policies and managing the allocation of spectrum.

although the army was established not long ago, due to taiwan's strong computer skills, the ict army is still very strong and is one of the most important partners of the united states in cyber operations. in 2021, the united states held a cyber attack and defense competition, and the ict army sent a representative team to participate. in the end, it successfully won the championship among 46 hacker teams, which caused the taiwanese authorities to cheer.

precisely because of the "outstanding contributions" of the information, communications and electronics force, since january 1, 2022, the information, communications and electronics force command is no longer affiliated with the general staff headquarters, but has been changed to a military organization directly under the ministry of national defense. its status has been further upgraded, and its commander ma ying-han has also been successfully promoted to general.

from the perspective of usage, although the information, communication and electronics army has the word "electric" in its name, its electronic warfare capabilities are far from sufficient and are not taken seriously. what is truly valued is the information, communication and electronics army's hacking and public opinion warfare capabilities.

for example, the information and communications technology army mainly attacks scientific research universities, government agencies and military departments, and steals confidential information from the mainland by installing trojan viruses through emails and stealing email information.

compared with these hackers who steal secrets, the actions of the "anonymous 64" organization exposed this time are more political. since its establishment, "anonymous 64" has frequently attacked mainland china's outdoor electronic screens, vending machines, internet tvs and other internet-connected devices, uploaded anti-china and insulting content, and then posted the results on overseas social media.

▲"anonymous 64" claimed to attack digital signage in mainland china and hong kong (source: xinhuanet)

what’s funny is that, as mainland china’s awareness of prevention increases, “anonymous 64”, in order to meet its kpi, has resorted to fraud to show its “achievements”. many of the results it posted are from fake websites, and some are even photoshopped.

compared with such jumping clowns, what really has an impact on the mainland is the information and communications army's propaganda warfare troops.

we have all heard of taiwan’s “1450 internet army”, but in fact, most of those who post comments on social media platforms are “unorganized” and are the kind of water army that is paid to do the job.

the one that is truly "organized" is the information and communications technology army, which belongs to the command level.

the information and communications army is mainly responsible for planning, mobilizing, and directing the entire public opinion war, formulating a "battle plan", and then commanding 1,450 water armies to conduct public opinion wars according to the prepared rhetoric.

the information, communications, military and propaganda warfare is mainly divided into internal and external.

internally, it means viciously attacking all opponents of the dpp.

after formulating a combat plan, the information and communications army will hand it over to some civilian "public opinion companies" for execution. for example, taiwan internet celebrity yang huiru, each of her company's subordinates has dozens of accounts, so she can control thousands of accounts. thousands of accounts are constantly refreshed all day long, and it is easy to create a huge wave of public opinion on the internet.

yang huiru's most famous battle was when she used a war of public opinion to force su qicheng, director of the taipei office in osaka, to commit suicide.

even more depressed is han kuo-yu. although han kuo-yu lost the election, his 5.52 million "korean wave" popularity has frightened the dpp, so they must put han kuo-yu to death. after han kuo-yu was elected as the head of the public opinion agency, the dpp's cyber army immediately staged a "black han drama". the island's social platforms were filled with a large number of posts calling for the "recall of han kuo-yu", hoping to replicate the plot of recalling han kuo-yu as the mayor of kaohsiung through public opinion.

what about external attacks? we have seen more of them. for example, taiwan’s cyber army used some hot events in the mainland to spread rumors and attack the social accounts of who director-general tedros adhanom ghebreyesus and singaporean prime minister’s wife ho ching to smear china’s image internationally. these are all masterpieces of the ict army.

what is even more vicious is that the information and communications technology army is also using propaganda warfare to alienate the friendly relations between china and other countries.

for example, in 2020, thai actor bright and his girlfriend new were accused of insulting china and were criticized by chinese netizens. this incident was quickly monitored by the information and communication army, and a combat plan was quickly formulated. a large number of new accounts were registered to create and forward cartoons, pictures and videos, pushing related topics to become popular, causing the sino-thai war of words to escalate rapidly.

a large number of thai-language accounts, pretending to be chinese accounts, made irresponsible remarks on the thai internet and even insulted the thai royal family. this is obviously challenging thailand's reverse scale and aroused anger among thai people.

there are also some accounts pretending to be thais, which post a large number of insulting remarks against china on social media (these insulting remarks are very "precise" and know how to stimulate the sensitive points of the chinese people). these contents are then translated by taiwan's cyber army and posted on the mainland internet, triggering chinese netizens to denounce them. even the official weibo account of the tourism authority of thailand was attacked.

at the same time, "hong kong independence" elements also began to participate. joshua wong sent several tweets in support of the "thai netizens"' anti-china remarks, and taiwan's liberty times also jumped out to fan the flames of the war of words.

this war of words lasted for two or three years. until 2023, there were still a large number of taiwanese cyber troops on mainland social media, smearing that thailand was unsafe to travel to, and even spreading rumors that many chinese internet celebrities had disappeared in thailand, causing panic among mainland tourists, who canceled their trips to thailand one after another.

by attacking thailand's tourism industry, they made thais feel resentful towards the chinese, and tried to help the pro-western "future progressive party" come to power. however, in the end, with the support of the thai military, the pro-china pheu thai party came to power and formed a cabinet. the efforts of the taiwan cyber army fell through.the leak of a document from the information and communications technology army regarding an operation in thailand also exposed the ugly behavior of taiwan’s cyber army to the public.

▲the "information and communication army" leaked secret operation documents to alienate china and other countries

although there has been no military conflict between the mainland and taiwan, taiwan's military has already launched a propaganda war against the mainland on the internet. therefore, the mainland has opened a case against the three information and communications military personnel.