Bipartisan bill would ‘arm Taiwan to the teeth’ with US cyber tech

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to apply U.S. cybersecurity technologies and techniques in defense of Taiwan, a target of Chinese influence campaigns, digital onslaughts and potential military takeover.

Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Reps. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., on April 20 introduced the Taiwan Cybersecurity Resiliency Act , which would require the Pentagon to intensify its cyber outreach and collaboration with the much-discussed independent island.

Such expanded partnership would involve training exercises and the eradication of malicious cyber activity, according to Rosen, who mentioned the legislation in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing featuring the the top U.S. military commander in the Indo-Pacific, Navy Adm. John Aquilino.

China considers Taiwan a renegade province and has vowed to retake it by force, if necessary. The U.S. has for decades supplied Taiwan with military hardware and software worth billions of dollars. The Taiwanese government has previously said its agencies are peppered by thousands of cyberattacks each week.

Rosen on Thursday said the U.S. is “acutely aware of the threat that China poses in the cyber domain,” and described Taiwan as Beijing’s “testing ground,” language also used to described the Russia-Ukraine dynamic. Gallagher, who leads the House special committee on China, in a statement said the bill would help “arm Taiwan to the teeth in the cyber domain.”

U.S. officials consider China a premier cyber hazard, alongside Russia. The Biden administration’s national cybersecurity strategy , released early last month, labels China as the most persistent digital threat, capable of twisting narratives and siphoning intellectually property, and Russia as a foreign meddler, a haven for hackers.

The U.S. Capitol is seen reflected on a window of the Keck Center, a National Academies building, in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 19, 2023. (Colin Demarest/C4ISRNET)

Invigorating cybersecurity at home and abroad is critical, according to Aquilino, who is responsible for all U.S. military activities in the Indo-Pacific.

With the help of Cyber Command , he told Rosen, the U.S. is working “to strengthen ally, partner and friend networks, so that they’re secure and that they can have a confidence that the things they’re putting out in their own networks are not being read or impacted by other nations.”

INDOPACOM’s fiscal 2024 unfunded priorities list, totaling nearly $3.5 billion, includes $184 million for offensive cyber capabilities, $90 million for cybersecurity and network hardening, and $39 million for the so-called mission partner environment, which allows data from a range of militaries to be collated, secured, shared and acted upon.

Military leaders submit the unfunded inventories, often referred to as wish lists , to Congress to highlight projects that did not make it into the White House budget blueprint but would be useful, should money be available.

“To talk to those allies and partners right now, I have 13 separate networks; that’s costly, they’re at risk,” Aquilino said. “What we’re attempting to deliver is a single pane of glass that allows us to communicate securely, in a cyber-safe way, with all of our partners across the region, no matter who, at the level at which we can share.”

Colin Demarest was a reporter at C4ISRNET, where he covered military networks, cyber and IT. Colin had previously covered the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration — namely Cold War cleanup and nuclear weapons development — for a daily newspaper in South Carolina. Colin is also an award-winning photographer.

华盛顿——一个由两党议员组成的小组希望运用美国的网络安全技术和方法来保卫台湾。台湾是中国影响力活动、数字攻击和潜在军事接管的目标。

4月20日，内华达州民主党参议员杰基·罗森、南达科他州共和党参议员迈克·朗兹、宾夕法尼亚州民主党众议员克里西·霍拉汉和威斯康星州共和党众议员迈克·加拉格尔提出了《台湾网络安全韧性法案》，该法案将要求五角大楼加强与这个备受关注的独立岛屿的网络外联与合作。

罗森表示，这种扩大的伙伴关系将包括训练演习和消除恶意网络活动。他在参议院军事委员会的听证会上提到了这项立法，出席听证会的还有美国在印太地区最高军事指挥官、海军上将约翰·阿奎利诺。

中国视台湾为叛离省份，并誓言必要时将以武力收复。美国数十年来向台湾提供价值数十亿美元的军事硬件和软件。台湾政府此前曾表示，其机构每周都会遭受数千次网络攻击。

罗森周四表示，美国“高度意识到中国在网络领域构成的威胁”，并将台湾描述为北京的“试验场”，这一措辞也曾被用来形容俄乌关系。众议院中国问题特别委员会主席加拉格尔在一份声明中表示，该法案将有助于“在网络领域武装台湾”。

美国官员将中国与俄罗斯并列为首要网络威胁。拜登政府上月初发布的《国家网络安全战略》将中国列为最持续存在的数字威胁，称其能够歪曲事实、窃取知识产权，并将俄罗斯视为外国干涉者和黑客的避风港。

2023年2月19日，美国国会大厦的倒影映在位于华盛顿特区的凯克中心（国家科学院大楼）的窗户上。（Colin Demarest/C4ISRNET）

负责美国在印太地区所有军事活动的阿奎利诺表示，加强国内外网络安全至关重要。

他告诉罗森，在网络司令部的帮助下，美国正在努力“加强盟友、伙伴和友好国家的网络，以确保它们的安全，并让他们确信，他们在自己的网络中发布的内容不会被其他国家读取或影响。”

印太司令部 2024 财年未拨款优先事项清单总额近 35 亿美元，其中包括 1.84 亿美元用于进攻性网络能力，9000 万美元用于网络安全和网络加固，以及 3900 万美元用于所谓的任务伙伴环境，该环境允许收集、保护、共享和处理来自多个国家军队的数据。

军方领导人向国会提交未获拨款的清单（通常被称为愿望清单），以突出那些没有被纳入白宫预算蓝图但如果有资金可用将会很有用的项目。

阿奎利诺说：“目前，要与这些盟友和伙伴沟通，我需要使用13个不同的网络；这成本很高，而且存在风险。我们正在努力打造的是一个统一的平台，使我们能够以网络安全的方式，与该地区的所有伙伴进行安全沟通，无论他们是谁，都能在我们可以共享的层面上进行沟通。”

科林·德马雷斯特曾是C4ISRNET的记者，负责报道军事网络、网络安全和信息技术方面的新闻。此前，他曾为南卡罗来纳州的一家日报报道美国能源部及其下属的国家核安全管理局，主要关注冷战后的清理工作和核武器研发。科林还是一位屡获殊荣的摄影师。