MODA notifies supermarkets to bolster cybersecurity

• By Shelley Shan / Staff Reporter

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The Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) yesterday said it had notified the nation’s largest supermarket chains to inspect their Internet of Things (IoT) devices and install firmware updates to address security vulnerabilities, after a cyberattack earlier this week caused about 150 supermarkets in France to incur substantial food losses.

The incident involving Internet-connected refrigeration systems — which resulted in fridges and freezers heating up to 50°C, spoiling food and triggering fires — was one of the main subjects discussed at the legislature’s Transportation Committee meeting yesterday.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) said Taiwan has an extremely high density of convenience stores and supermarkets, so people’s lives would be hugely disrupted if similar attacks happen in Taiwan.

Boxes of perished goods outside an Intermarche supermarket in Paris are pictured on Tuesday.

Photo: Reuters

The ministry should address the issue and prevent hackers from launching cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure using IoT, he added.

Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) said many companies began linking their internal systems to public Internet networks when IoT became a trend about a decade ago, but they overlooked the importance of cybersecurity protection.

“The global trend in the corporate world is disconnecting the internal networks from the Internet unless it is absolutely necessary. They only need to connect to the Intranet and monitor access to internal systems by establishing a whitelist,” Lin said.

Administration for Cybersecurity Director-General Tsai Fu-lung (蔡福隆) said the firmware of the French supermarkets’ refrigeration system was outdated and its vulnerabilities has not been addressed for a long time, so hackers had the opportunity to tamper with the temperature setting.

“After the incident, we quickly notified the supermarket chains around the nation through the Taiwan Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center to examine IoT devices and update firmware,” Tsai said.

Meanwhile, DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) highlighted the national security risks posed by the use of eSIMs, which many Taiwanese travelers purchase when they travel overseas.

A Taiwan’s Consumers’ Foundation survey found that 72 percent of 172 eSIMs purchased from the market have Internet traffic routed through China or Hong Kong, rather than the countries users are traveling in, he said.

This means that the content transmitted through these eSIMs are subject to regulation and surveillance under Hong Kong’s National Security Law or China’s Cybersecurity Law, he added.

The minister said the market is inundated with cheap, but unsafe eSIM cards routed through Chinese telecoms — such as China Mobile — as their massive consumer base gives them greater bargaining power when negotiating profit-sharing arrangements for international roaming services.

The government can regulate eSIMs sold through domestic e-commerce platforms such as momo and PChome, but lacks jurisdiction over those purchased from overseas Web sites, he said.

To reduce the risks associated with cheap foreign SIM cards, the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the National Communications Commission, in collaboration with Taiwan’s three major telecom operators, require customers to purchase domestic eSIMs online using real-name authentication, he added.