TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The decentralized international hacktivist group Anonymous has hacked into a United Nations website and uploaded a series of pages to support Taiwan "once more before Christmas."
On Thursday (Dec. 23), Reddit user "Allez-opi_omi," who has previously publicized Anonymous hacks of Chinese government websites, uploaded nine links the group had surreptitiously inserted into the UN Networks on Migration website. The title of the social media post was, "Thanks to Anonymous, Taiwan returns to the UN once more before Christmas! (ft. Ukraine & Namewee)."
The first link displays Taiwan's national flag, while the second shows its national emblem. The third link launches an audio file that plays Taiwan's national anthem.
Taiwan national emblem. (Anonymous image)
The fourth link opens a page that features Marvel superheroes and plays the Kitty Kallen song "It's Been a Long, Long Time." The tune is a 1940s big band hit about a spouse welcoming home her husband from WWII and has been featured frequently in Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
In a departure from previous pro-Taiwan hacks, the group also included a link to a music video featuring Malaysian rapper Namewee (黄明志) and Taiwan-based Australian singer Kimberley Chen (陳芳語) singing the Mandopop song "Fragile," which in Mandarin is titled "glass heart" (玻璃心). The video is full of satire directed at the Chinese Communist Party, from the extensive use of the color pink to symbolize "little pinks" (小粉紅), or jingoistic Chinese nationals, to a giant, clumsy panda.
The sixth link claims to contain a "small idea for a Ukrainian peace plan" which calls for a referendum on whether to follow a peace protocol or hand over the territories of Donbass to a UN peacekeeper administration. A later referendum in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions would then ask voters to choose to reunite with Ukraine, become independent, or join Russia.
The seventh and eighth links consist of HTML code displaying the group's previous work. The last link is a previously posted manifesto by Anonymous Malaysia that accuses an "Instagram/TikTok influencer" of being a "serial rapist."
Screenshot of content from eighth link. (Anonymous screenshot)
When asked how Anonymous had hacked into the UN website, Allez-opi_omi said, "We simply walked right in to take advantage of a vulnerability where files can be somehow arbitrarily uploaded but only to a degree, just like last time at cice.org.cn." He added that the purpose of this hack was to promote Taiwan and also to support Malaysian flood victims.
