American Institute of Taiwan Director Sandra Oudkirk says the U.S. is working with Taiwan on addressing key cyber security challenges, including cyber attacks on governmental and non-governmental infrastructures, and online information manipulation.
In her end-of-year policy speech at National Taiwan University on Monday, Oudkirk praises Taiwan's performance in the digital innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship fields and its efforts in reducing the digital divide. She encourages Taiwan to continue to play a role in Asia’s digital transformation while facing a more challenging and complex global landscape.
Oudkirk adds that the U.S.’s support for Taiwan remains rock solid and emphasizes that the U.S.’s Taiwan policy is entirely consistent with its one-China policy. She says the support for Taiwan is one of the only bipartisan areas of consensus in Washington and she expects this support to continue.
When speaking on the mutual cyber security threats, Oudkirk says that information manipulation is particularly worrisome in the context of democratic elections. She says that the United States, Taiwan, and many others have witnessed how intentional manipulation of information can undermine people's faith in the democratic process and the democracy itself, and that the ability for the democracies to thrive is at risk.
According to Oudkirk, countries including Taiwan are collaborating to counter the erosion of accurate, trustworthy, and reliable information by participating in the Global Declaration of Information Integrity Online, an initiative designed to protect and promote information integrity on the Internet endorsed by many democratic countries.
At the end of her speech, Oudkirk concluded that the U.S. looks forward to working with Taiwan on bolstering resilience and countering cyber-attacks.