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Taiwan's Presidential Office denies reports of lost laptop

Reports of infighting among ruling party during presidential primary 'typical fake news,': Presidential Office

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President Tsai Ing-wen gives inaugural speech on May 20.

President Tsai Ing-wen gives inaugural speech on May 20. (CNA photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Reports of a deputy secretary general losing his laptop are false, the Presidential Office said Friday (May 22) after several days of rumors about a cyber attack and forged e-mails.

On May 15, reporters received documents alleging there was infighting within the Democratic Progressive Party during its presidential primary last year, but the Presidential Office has said the information is false and that its distribution was the result of a cyber attack. In a second incident, lawmakers received fake emails from the Presidential Office on May 20 through a server reportedly based in Ukraine.

Media reports Friday said the information that emerged during the cyber attack was from a computer lost by a presidential deputy secretary general surnamed Liu (劉). However, a Presidential Office spokesman immediately dismissed this as “typical fake news,” CTWANT reported.

Nobody, including Liu, had recently lost any type of computer, the spokesman said, adding that media outlets should immediately correct their reports and that the relevant authorities are investigating the alleged cyber attack.

The alleged confidential document described attempts by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to ward off the challenge from former Premier Lai Ching-te (賴清德) during last year’s DPP primary.

Tsai won the vote and later selected Lai as her running mate, winning a landslide victory in the Jan. 11 presidential election. Both were sworn in on Wednesday (May 20).