TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taipei City Fire Department has fallen prey to malicious cryptomining for at least six months, reports said Thursday (Feb. 23), following a litany of high-profile cybercrimes in the private sector.

Cryptomining software was found on a department operations center computer system during a system upgrade in January, according to ETToday. The incident, which exploited electricity, hardware, and other resources, has resulted in lower internet speeds since July.

The department confirmed that it was notified of the event by the National Institute of Cybersecurity on Jan. 17 and action was taken accordingly pursuant to the Regulations on the Notification and Response of Cyber Security Incident (資通安全事件通報及應變辦法). Damage control was completed on Jan. 19.

No data breach was reported, nor were 119 emergency services affected, said the department, adding the incident involved an internal server being compromised by “external perpetrators.” Security measures including setting up firewalls have been bolstered, CNA quoted officials as saying.

The revelation comes on the heels of a spate of hacks grabbing headlines. Breeze Center this week said it was blackmailed by hackers who stole data of over 900,000 customers, and car rental service providers including Car-Plus and iRent caused personal data leak concerns earlier this month.