Chinese hackers are currently targeting Taiwan's local news organization and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party with the motive to obtain advanced information about politics and speeches before the elections, according to Bloomberg News.

The hackers were disguised in the form of phishing emails with the subject line, "DPP's Contact Information Update".

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This identified APT16, a Chinese-state supported group, as having orchestrated the attacks, according to a recent research by a security company named Fire Eye.

The Hackers also infiltrated the personal e-mails of party staff, security protocols and writing messages used to spoof account holders in an attempt to deliver the malicious code.

Opinion surveys reveal that DPP has the highest probability of earning a legislative majority vote.

Tsai Ing-wen, Democratic Progressive Party's incumbent chairwoman and presidential candidate, is predicted to secure the Taiwanese presidency after an eight-year Nationalist Kuomintang rule.

China has been vigilant with DPP's views toward Taiwan's independence and relationship with the Mainland, which considers Taiwan as its renegade province.

"There's a lot of people in China who want and need information for their own intelligence purposes," said Jordan Berry, Fire Eye Principal Threat Intelligence Analyst.

William Stanton, a former U.S. diplomat to Taiwan, revealed that he was repeatedly warned by Google via email that his Gmail account may be targeted by government hackers.

Stanton stated that he has a high chance of being targeted due to his current position as the Director of Taiwan's Tsing Hua University Center For Asian Policy.

As many as 50 DPP staff members were targeted by the hackers. Some staff members tried to improvise a solution to protect themselves against hackers by shifting to Gmail.

However, this measure is not preventive since Gmail can add a forwarding address to an external account if the two-step identification process is turned off by hackers.

TagsChinese hackers, attack, taiwan opposition, Fire Eye Security