Taiwan says it detected AI-assisted cyberattack campaign from overseas targeting government agencies last month, but affected agencies successfully "handled" it (Reuters)

Taiwan detected AI-assisted cyberattacks on government agencies last month, which originated from overseas. The Ministry of Digital Affairs reported that its cybersecurity monitoring units detected the "abnormal attack" targeting government agencies, starting on July 20.

The National Institute of Cyber Security issued warning alerts as it investigated the incident. According to the Israeli AI company Dream, which detected the intrusion, the attackers used open-source AI agents to build an autonomous hacking tool that behaved like a coordinated cyber team. This tool compromised at least 85 government user accounts, extracting over 2,500 personnel records.

The affected government agencies successfully handled the incident. Taiwan has recently complained about China's "hybrid warfare," including daily military drills, disinformation campaigns, and cyberattacks, as Beijing increases military and political pressure on the island. In 2025, Chinese cyberattacks on Taiwan's key infrastructure rose 6% to an average of 2.63 million attacks daily, according to the island's National Security Bureau.

Brief written by urgent.news from Techmeme, Guardian Technology, Al-Monitor, Daily Maverick, Free Malaysia Today — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.