Blog Post

Cybersecurity figures in New Zealand

Feb 19, 2020
New Zealand's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) revealed that it's received the most incident reports for one quarter since it was established in 2017. An increase of 13% on the previous quarter. This shows that New Zealand is not immune to such attacks, and cybersecurity should be a priority both in your business and personally. To help you get a sense of the potential impact, a recent Newshub article showed how much an attack is likely to cost you. They also break down the different types of cybersecurity incidents being reported in New Zealand.

Even though the number of reports have increased, the dollar value was down 41 percent to $3.8 million for the quarter. This could indicate a change in tact from the fraudsters. They are now targeting smaller amounts, which may not ring any alarm bells for unsuspecting people. The average amount lost by individuals was $13,851, with nine losses being in excess of $100,000  

These scams come in a variety of ways; from extortion or blackmail scams, scams when buying, selling or donating, and fake prize scams. There were also many reports of phishing and credential harvesting.

The report showed no-one is immune to being targeted. All age groups had raised incidents with CERT.

Computer Culture can offer Security Audits to help identify the holes in your information systems that attackers would use to compromise your organisation.


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