Over 1200 NZ cyber security incidents reported in six months

Security threats are significantly increasing across the country. Within the period of January till July more than 1200 cyber security incidents have been reported in New Zealand, amounting to more than $5 million in losses according to the quarterly report findings from CERT NZ. These numbers show that an increasing number of Kiwi businesses and individuals were affected by cyber-attacks during the first half of 2018.

Phishing attacks dominated the reporting list, followed by scams, fraud and unauthorised access, alongside ransomware, website compromises and malware. “A vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware or an online service that can be exploited to damage a system or access information,” said Rob Pope, director of CERT NZ. Global incidents also impacted Facebook, Ticketmaster, Ortbiz or Meltdown and Spectre. New Zealand has already had a number of popular security breaches such as the Inland Revenue, Z Energy and Vector. They have all fallen victim to media headlines and public scrutiny. Furthermore, a government minister was impersonated via social media.

Despite the breaches, security remains the number one investment priority of Kiwi channels, followed by managed services and customer experience. Customers are ranking security as a number three priority locally, behind cloud migration and data centre expansion. 44 per cent of businesses are planning to increase the number of partners they use during the next 12 months, while end-users are seeking “specialists with proven experience” in the market.

Only 12 per cent of businesses in New Zealand are seeking security expertise from outsourcing partners. Businesses are focusing more on digital transformation and cloud credentials. The forecast for security spending in New Zealand is predicting a growth of 9.9 per cent in 2019, reaching $604 million from $550 million in 2018.