Members of the decentralized hacktivist group Anonymous hacked into a Chinese government website in Heilongjiang on Wednesday, welcoming US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan and slamming the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Anonymous hacked into China's Heilongjiang Society Scientific Community Federation website, according to Taiwan News, replacing the website's content with their own HTML page.
The hacked version included the words "Taiwan Numbah Wan," its national flag emblem and anthem, photos of Pelosi and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, and the words "Taiwan welcomes US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi" as well as many jabs against the CCP.
The text at the top of the site, "Taiwan Numbah Wan!" – Taiwan is number one – refers to a quote said by video game streamer AngryPug to antagonize Chinese streamer Em0 during a match in the game H1Z1 in 2015.
The group even embedded the music video for "Fragile," a Mandopop song sung by Malaysian rapper Namewee (黄明志) and Taiwan-based Australian singer Kimberley Chen (陳芳語) as an apparent jab at the Chinese reaction to the visit.
The video is full of satire directed at the CCP, from the extensive use of the color pink to symbolize the jingoistic Chinese nationals referred to as "little pinks" (小粉紅) to a giant, clumsy panda.
The defacement along with the website itself have been quickly taken offline. However, an archived version on Internet Archive's Wayback Machine still shows the state of the site during the time of the hack.
Cyberattack on Taiwan
The page details that the hack is "a retaliation to the DDoS attacks performed on the [Taiwanese] presidential website" on Tuesday, further stating that "True, there is one China, but Taiwan is the real China while yours is only an imitation straight out of wish.com."
Access to the website was restored within about 20 minutes of the attack, the Taiwanese presidential office said in a statement on Tuesday. Taiwanese government agencies were monitoring the situation in the face of "information warfare," a spokesperson later added.
The websites of a government portal and Taiwan's foreign ministry were also temporarily taken offline on Tuesday.
Several convenience store branches and government facilities across Taiwan saw their digital signage hacked with messages slandering Pelosi on Wednesday, according to the Taiwanese Criminal Investigation Bureau.
Initial investigations suggest the incidents were cyber attacks from unknown Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, the CIB said, adding that it is collecting more evidence to identify the origins of the attacks.
Earlier in the day, digital bulletin messages reading "War monger Pelosi, get out of Taiwan" were seen in some branches of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, which the operator said came from outside its system, according to Focus Taiwan.
Meanwhile, at Taiwan Railways Administration's Xinzuoying Station in Kaohsiung, there was a bulletin message calling Pelosi "an old witch."
China hacked again
On January 14, Anonymous hacked into www.polar.org.cn, a Chinese government website affiliated with the Polar Research Institute of China, a subsidiary of the country's Ministry of Natural Resources, according to Taiwan News.
The hacktivists created a page under the "projects" section of the website titled "We are Anonymous!" Under "detailed description," the Anonymous logo appeared, followed by the "Taiwan Numbah Wan!" meme.
Below the slogan was Taiwan's national flag followed by its national emblem. The next flag displayed was the black nine-pointed star and yellow discs first used during the Wuchang Uprising in modern-day Wuhan that the Republic of China Army used as its standard from 1911 to 1928.
The national flag of the Republic of China used from 1912 to 1928 appeared next, consisting of five horizontal stripes, with each color representing a different major ethnic group in China.
Next was a video that played Taiwan's national anthem; the group then again embedded the music video for "Fragile."