(Kitco News) - Officials in Taiwan are preparing for the official launch of its new Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) office on August 27 amid escalating tensions between China and the island country located at the western edge of the Pacific Ocean.
Its launch is part of a multi-pronged approach designed to protect against Chinese cyberattacks, which have been on the rise in recent months amid visits from high-level U.S. diplomats, including Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.
The new ministry will be in charge of policies related to information, telecommunications, communications, information security and the internet when it launches, with information security coming in as the most pressing concern currently.
According to Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tank, who has been selected to head the new ministry, InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) technology will be incorporated into its system to help boost the country’s cybersecurity capabilities in its information war with China.
IPFS is considered to be part of the Web 3.0 evolution as the protocol operates as a peer-to-peer network for storing and sharing data in a distributed file system. To achieve this, the protocol uses content-addressing to uniquely identify each file in a global namespace connecting all computing devices.
Tang highlighted the immutable nature that the new integration brings, commenting that “It uses a Web3 structure, which is tied to the global blockchain community and the global Web2 backbone network. So if it can be taken down, everything from Ethereum to NFTs will be taken down, which is unlikely.”
Decentralized networks like IPFS have proven to be effective at combating distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which have become a preferred method of attack on Taiwan by China in recent months.
Following Pelosi’s visit in early August, Tang said that cyber attacks on Taiwan government units surpassed 15,000 gigabits, a figure that is 23 times higher than the previous daily record.
Several government websites, including the presidential office, were targeted in the overseas cyber attacks, some of which appear to have been launched by China and Russia, according to authorities.
Taiwan Cabinet spokesman Lo Ping-Cheng indicated that power plants and airports had been a focal point for the increased security measures, along with an increased cyber security alertness level at all government offices.
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The integration of IFPS technology by MODA demonstrates one of the many beneficial applications of distributed ledger and blockchain technology and highlights the additional security that peer-to-peer networks can provide.
From a wider perspective, Taiwan’s relationship with crypto thus far has been somewhat love-hate, with the country recently applying an indirect ban on buying cryptocurrencies with credit cards after its chief financial regulator compared cryptos to online gambling.
On the flip side, the country continues to work diligently on its own central bank digital currency, which is currently being dispersed through a pilot program to five Taiwanese banks for wider distribution.
