Improving Cyber Defense Assistance to Meet the Challenges in Taiwan

This report assessed how the Cyber Defense Assistance Collaborative (CDAC), a Civilian Research and Development Foundation Global initiative founded in 2022 to coordinate private-sector cyber defense assistance to Ukraine, can adapt its operational model for Taiwan. Taiwan absorbed approximately 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day in 2025 — a 113% increase since 2023 — yet remains in a sustained pre-kinetic gray zone rather than active war. Unlike Ukraine in 2022, Taiwan and CDAC together have time to build operational infrastructure before conditions escalate.

Drawing on open-source research, interviews with cybersecurity practitioners and regional experts, and a structured comparison between CDAC’s Ukraine experience and Taiwan’s current posture, the report found that while CDAC’s core mandate translates directly, nearly every operational dimension — legal authority, diplomatic access, partner engagement, financing channels, and delivery logistics — required deliberate adaptation. Taiwan faces a Chinese cyber apparatus larger and more persistent than the Russian threat to Ukraine, but it also enters this period with a more developed institutional baseline; the gap CDAC must close is between mature institutions and demonstrated operational readiness, not between absent institutions and any readiness at all.

The report’s framework organized CDAC’s next steps around three pillars — relationship building, financing, and capacity building — which identified ACS/MODA endorsement as the gateway to ecosystem access, naming five priority funding relationships for immediate engagement, and proposed a tiered workforce development model spanning professional, adjacent, and reserve roles.