The number of cyber attacks on New Zealand computers has almost doubled in the past year, the Government agency in charge of internet security says.
It comes as an international report says the country is at a greater risk of being cut off entirely from the internet than many other nations around the world. "We're seeing a lot more activity generally around the world in this space," said TUANZ chief executive, Paul Brislen.
The United States has also pointed the finger at the Chinese military for concerted attacks on American companies, US government agencies and vital infrastructure.In the past two weeks 75,000 people were forced to change their Yahoo-Xtra passwords after hackers broke into the email provider and issued a widespread spam attack.
The National Cyber Security Centre, which is part of intelligence agency the GCSB and is tasked with keeping New Zealand's critical infrastructure safe, says New Zealanders need to be aware of such attacks. "We're no different in terms of the kind of scale and nature of the threats that we face," said GCSB director Ian Fletcher. "We don't usually talk about where we think they come from, but I think the message really is we need to take this just as seriously as others are around the world."
Such cyber attacks are on the rise in New Zealand, the NCSC said. "What we have announced is that over the past year the number of attacks, or intrusions really, that were reported to us went up by about 50%," said Fletcher. "Our Australian counterparts have seen a similar scale." However, New Zealand is seen as being more vulnerable than Australia.
Data from internet intelligence consultants Renesy's shows that Australia, the United States and most European countries are resistant to the threat of being completely cut off from the web, while New Zealand is exposed. And that threat comes, not only from hackers, but from natural disasters.
"We've got two lines that come into Auckland, and that's really our only connection to the outside world," said Brislen. "So if anything were to happen in Auckland - the risk hopefully is quite low - but the downside of anything actually happening is really quite tremendous. We would be cut off for quite some time."
That concern from NCSC should give the big telecommunications companies something to think about, following the announcement of a new trans-Tasman internet cable this week and the likelihood that it will also come ashore in Auckland.
It comes as an international report says the country is at a greater risk of being cut off entirely from the internet than many other nations around the world. "We're seeing a lot more activity generally around the world in this space," said TUANZ chief executive, Paul Brislen.
The United States has also pointed the finger at the Chinese military for concerted attacks on American companies, US government agencies and vital infrastructure.In the past two weeks 75,000 people were forced to change their Yahoo-Xtra passwords after hackers broke into the email provider and issued a widespread spam attack.
The National Cyber Security Centre, which is part of intelligence agency the GCSB and is tasked with keeping New Zealand's critical infrastructure safe, says New Zealanders need to be aware of such attacks. "We're no different in terms of the kind of scale and nature of the threats that we face," said GCSB director Ian Fletcher. "We don't usually talk about where we think they come from, but I think the message really is we need to take this just as seriously as others are around the world."
Data from internet intelligence consultants Renesy's shows that Australia, the United States and most European countries are resistant to the threat of being completely cut off from the web, while New Zealand is exposed. And that threat comes, not only from hackers, but from natural disasters.
"We've got two lines that come into Auckland, and that's really our only connection to the outside world," said Brislen. "So if anything were to happen in Auckland - the risk hopefully is quite low - but the downside of anything actually happening is really quite tremendous. We would be cut off for quite some time."
That concern from NCSC should give the big telecommunications companies something to think about, following the announcement of a new trans-Tasman internet cable this week and the likelihood that it will also come ashore in Auckland.
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