Cyber warfare: Taiwan may hike defence spending amid Chinese threat

But pressure is also growing on Taiwan to build resilience to another kind of warfare that could wreak devastating damage -- cyberattacks, reported Nikkei Asia.

The government and companies were targets of such attacks in connection with the controversial visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the beginning of August, read the Japanese website.

Customers in 7-Eleven stores saw bulletin messages reading "Warmonger Pelosi, get out of Taiwan." And electronic billboards were hijacked across Taiwan -- one calling her an "old witch" whose visit is a "serious provocation to the sovereignty of the motherland", the newspaper reported.

Creating panic, websites of the presidential office and foreign affairs and defense ministries were also shut by hackers for a short while.

While no real damage was done, the online offensive caused worry in Taiwan about whether its key infrastructure and essential services have strong enough firewalls and the ability to withstand determined cyberattacks, Nikkei Asia reported.

It came as China's biggest-ever military drills encircled the democratic island that Beijing regards as a renegade province but has never been controlled by Communist China.

"If power plants, hospitals, and transportation are hacked, the damage would be significant," Wang Ming-hung, an assistant professor of computer studies at National Chung Cheng University, told Nikkei Asia.

He said Taiwan's government, military and public should work to ensure they are prepared. "Everyone is exposed to the risks of cyberattacks," he said, "from sensitive data leakage to online service suspension and disinformation or misinformation to critical infrastructure."