Taiwan claims Chinese cyberattacks increased to 2.6 million a day, says report

The world has seen an increase in cyber crimes in the last year, including Taiwan.

According to a report by the National Security Bureau, Chinese cyberattacks on Taiwan’s key infrastructure, from hospitals to banks, rose 6% in 2025 from the previous year to an average of 2.63 million attacks a day.

As reported by Reuters, Taiwan’s National Security Bureau NSB said, adding some were synchronized with military drills in "hybrid threats" to paralyze the island.

Taiwan has, in recent years, complained about what it sees as China's "hybrid warfare"—from daily military drills near the island to disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks—as Beijing ramps up military and political pressure on the democratically governed island to force Taipei to accept its claims of sovereignty.

The National Security Bureau report released on Sunday, January 4, 2026, indicates that the average number of daily attacks in 2025 jumped 113% from 2023, when the bureau first began publishing such data, with sectors such as energy, emergency rescue, and hospitals seeing the sharpest year-on-year increases.

"Such a trend indicates a deliberate attempt by China to compromise Taiwan’s crucial infrastructure comprehensively and to disrupt or paralyze Taiwanese government and social functions," the report said.

The bureau said China's "cyber army" timed operations to coincide with military and political coercion, citing an example as; China launched 40 "joint combat readiness patrols" by sending military planes and ships close to Taiwan and cyberattacks escalated on 23 of those occasions.

It also stressed that China ramped up hacking activities during politically sensitive moments, such as when President Lai Ching-te marked his first year in office with a speech in May and when Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim spoke at a meeting with lawmakers at the European Parliament in November 2025.

The report stated that “China's moves align with its strategic need to employ hybrid threats against Taiwan during both peacetime and wartime.”

The NSB also noted a correlation between Chinese military drills and a heightened frequency of cyber incidents, suggesting coordination between cyber operations and the People’s Liberation Army’s training exercises targeting Taiwan.

While on the contrary, China routinely denies being involved in hacking attacks.

Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and has not ruled out the use of force to bring the island under its control.

Beijing’s cyber threat said that Chinese agents are constantly deploying new methods to test and weaken Taiwan’s defense, whereas Taipei strongly objects to China's sovereignty claims and says only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

The Taiwanese report said the Chinese attacks included 'distributed denial-of-service' DDoS attacks designed to disrupt Taiwan's daily life as well as man-in-the-middle attacks to steal information and penetrate the island's telecommunications networks.

It has been revealed that Taiwan's semiconductor industry—home to firms such as TSMC—has also been a prime target, with attackers employing a range of techniques to steal advanced technologies.

The NSB report highlights that the move was an attempt “to support China's self-reliance in technology and economic development and prevent China from being put in a disadvantaged position in the U.S.-China technology competition.”