Government agencies responsible for information security operations yesterday revealed that cyberspace attackers, allegedly mainly from China, mounted more than 5,000 assaults on various government websites in the last two months.

They urged all public and private organizations to step up security measures to fend off the attacks due to the upcoming crucial legislative election next month.

Officials of the ad hoc information security task force of the Executive Yuan (Cabinet) said cyberspace attackers launched a new wave of attack on Taiwan Web sites on the Internet during the period around presidential inauguration on May 20.

But the attacks reemerged in September and October with 5,088 attacks detected.

The attackers normally found their way into Web sites with more lax security of private enterprises and civic organizations. They then use the Web sites as springboards to jump into the sites of government agencies. Officials said the attackers often paste embarrassing slogans or images on the pages or changed contents to make the government “look bad.”

For certain cases, some even tried to steal the more sensitive information in the databases, they said.

One information security official said that rather than dispatch the “Red Army” to attack Taiwan, mainland China seems to have a large number of “cyberspace troops” constantly targeting the island in the virtual world.

He said the attackers from China emerged many years ago. But they seem have become better organized in recent years with Taiwan as their primary target.

Officials of the Cabinet task force said information management personnel at all government agencies and those in the private sector should heighten alert for possible increasing attacks from the cyberspace as the election of new members of the Legislative Yuan draws closer.

While the government agencies should maintain 24-hour monitoring, the private firms must also carefully screen incoming e-mail to prevent the invasion by malicious attackers, they added.