Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs is looking to bolster its cybersecurity defenses against cyberattacks from China and other adversaries, and has adopted IPFS technology to protect its infrastructure.
interplanetary file systemIPFS), designed by Juan Benet in 2014, is a peer-to-peer decentralized network that allows users to backup and store files and sites by hosting them over a network of nodes, eliminating central points of failure and circumventing censorship efforts. The system for storing and referring files to Ethereum is frequently compared to the peer-to-peer file sharing protocol BitTorrent.
The news of the IPFS promotion comes on the heels of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island, the first by a high-ranking official since 1997.
Grateful to have friends in the international community who stand with them #Taiwan To defend democracy and support regional security. Thank you Tweet embed And all the members of your delegation for coming to Taiwan and expressing your support. https://t.co/2EdwsiF8t3
– 蔡英文 Tsai Ingwen (iingwen) August 3, 2022
In an interview with the state-run Central News Agency on Tuesday, Digital Minister Audrey Tang said the ministry launched the new project on the same day that China began military exercises near Taiwan, after Pelosi’s visit.
“So far, it hasn’t been attacked successfully at all, and it hasn’t been disrupted for a second,” Tang said. “It uses the Web3 architecture linked to the global blockchain community and the global Web2 backbone.”
“If they can be removed, everything from Ethereum to NFTs will be removed, which is unlikely,” Tang continued. It noted separately that Taiwan’s technical partners include Cloud FlareDcard, which also supports Taiwanese social media platform Dcard.
Tang said the idea of using IPFS came after Russia invaded Ukraine, using cyberattacks to attack Ukrainian infrastructure.
According to Tang, the volume of cyberattacks on Taiwan government units on Tuesday, before and during Pelosi’s arrival, exceeded 15,000 gigabits, 23 times higher than the previous daily record.
