New Taipei City Gov't Blocks Worker Access to PTT 網軍疑雲 新北市府稱資安考量封鎖PTT

The Taipei and New Taipei City governments have been accused of employing cyberarmies. During a routine inspection of city government employees’ Internet usage, the New Taipei City Government discovered that many of them were accessing PTT during working hours. It decided to block the website.

Government functionaries use their work computers to access PTT, but find out the page is blocked. The New Taipei City Government recently blocked access to PTT to prevent city government employees from using the website during working hours. Previous reports indicated that employees were using PTT during working hours, perhaps even as members of cyberarmies, which hurt the image of the city government.

Resident: “You're not supposed to do personal things while you're at work anyway.”

Resident: “If the public has suspicions about cyberarmies, then I think this measure is good.”

The Taipei City Government was previously accused of having city government employees acting as a cyberarmy. During an inspection of the Internet usage of its employees, the New Taipei City Government found that many were using PTT during working hours, and this was unrelated to their work. It decided to progressively block access to PTT. At present, there are 8,368 blocked websites, including ones hosting discussion forums, games, and porn.

Chen Fu-tien, Deputy Director, Info. Mgmt. Center, New Taipei City: “We will block access to gambling websites, and even some discussion forums. The objective is of course to protect colleagues and prevent them from installing Trojans and other viruses onto our internal network. ”

Hou Yu-ih, Mayor, New Taipei City: “I respect the work of the city government units.”

The New Taipei City Government explained that it reviews the security issues of social media apps and sites every month, which is normal behavior for network managers. It said it is not targeting PTT, and pays NT$1.2 million a month in network fees to prevent bandwidth from being misused.

公務員使用公務電腦輸入PTT，結果卻進不了網頁，因為新北市政府祭出最新封鎖禁令，不讓公務員上班使用PTT。雙北近期接連爆出公務員上班用PTT，甚至引發網軍疑雲，重挫市府形象。

民眾認為：「上班的時候，原則上本來就不能做個人的私人事情。」、「如果說，一般民眾如果有這個疑慮，網軍的疑慮的話，我覺得這樣子的措施也還可以。」

受到北市府網軍爭議影響，新北市府回頭檢視轄下員工，發現有不少人在上班時間使用PTT，跟公務不相關，因此基於資安考量，進行滾動式調整封鎖PTT。截至目前為止，已封鎖包含論壇、遊戲、色情等8368個網站。

新北市政府資訊中心副主任陳富添說：「賭博網站，甚至說一些不必要的一些論壇等等這些東西，我們都會做一個封鎖的一個動作。當然這個目的，是為了保護同仁，避免同仁他去上了一些木馬的一個網站，把病毒或者說造成我們這個網路內部的一個資安漏洞。」

對此，新北市長侯友宜僅回應：「我都是尊重業務單位。」

新北市府澄清，每月會定期檢討社交軟體、社群網站的安全問題，純屬正常的網管行為。對於外界質疑針對PTT，新北市府否認，強調每月支付120萬的網路費，避免頻寬資源被濫用。