【The China Post 每日精選】：一

A local securities firm has been hit by a cyberattack

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taipei-based securities firm Taishin had some unhappy customers this morning as its services were temporarily downed by a cyberattack — the second one this year.

▲圖／翻攝自中國郵報

The attack targeted the electronic trading systems of Taishin as well as its subsidiary Ta Chong Securities, also putting the firm's telephone trading service out of commission in the process.

Taishin's system went down at 8:54 a.m., Apple Daily quoted a reader as saying, while Ta Chong's service went down at 8:50 a.m.

Both services were restored within an hour, with Taishin's back up at 9:32 a.m. and Ta Chong's back online at 9:35 a.m.

DDoS attacks, one of the most common cyberattacks seen today, overwhelm targeted servers with a flood of requests causing websites to slow down or crash, crippling the daily operations of businesses and organizations.

Monday's attack wasn't the first this year for Taishin.

It was among three brokerages targeted in February days after receiving extortion emails threatening DDoS attacks.

The emails had reportedly demanded a payment of NT$300,000 in the form of bitcoins from each company. No brokerage had transferred the funds, investigators said.

The potential motives behind the most recent attack were unclear as of press time.