Taiwan’s government networks are being attacked 2.6 million times a day. Six weeks before a national election, its intelligence chief just named Beijing’s playbook.
Taiwan’s National Security Bureau told lawmakers that Chinese-linked cyberattacks on government systems averaged 2.58 million per day in the first nine months of 2026. July alone hit 185.6 million detected attempts, more than the entire first quarter. The NSB says it can’t rule out that the surge was groundwork for interfering in the November 28 local elections.
Disinformation is climbing too. Suspicious accounts pushed more than 2.5 million false or disputed posts from January to September, up about 48% from last year. The themes: energy, food safety, national defense, and individual candidates. Most of it ran on Facebook, boosted by content farms, AI-generated video and audio, and coordinated comment flooding.
NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen outlined six tactics Beijing is using to “precisely interfere”:
1. Illegal financial support for chosen candidates or groups
2. Low-cost trips to China for targeted supporters
3. Discounted flights so Taiwanese in China can come home to vote
4. Disinformation, including AI-generated content
5. Illegal underground betting markets
6. Cyberattacks to steal election intelligence
The bureau says it is monitoring nearly 100 suspected cases and aims to refer them to prosecutors before voters go to the polls.
Taiwan has seen this before and mostly held up. But the tools are getting faster, cheaper, and harder to trace.