With thousands of Kiwis falling victim to cyberattacks every year, CERT NZ has offered tips to build online resilience and prevent incidents involving online scams, phishing, and unauthorised access of online accounts.
The government agency encouraged Kiwis to use a password manager so they could easily remember all their passwords while keeping them secure and turn on two-factor authentication to add an extra layer of security to their accounts.
It also recommended updating software and apps on devices to fix issues or vulnerabilities that attackers could take advantage of as well as changing privacy settings to protect information that attackers could use to try and access personal data and steal identity.
Rob Pope, director at CERT NZ, revealed that more than 7,000 Kiwis have reported cyber security incidents since their launch in 2017, with a combined financial loss of more than $26 million – so now might be the right time for brokers to introduce cyber insurance to customers.
“Many of us think we won’t be affected by a cyber security incident, but unfortunately our data shows otherwise. The upside is that there are simple steps every day New Zealanders can take to boost their online security and that’s the message [we want] to get across this Cyber Smart Week,” Pope said.
Theo Nassiokas, former cyber and information security director at Barclays Singapore, confirmed the agency’s data as he warned that New Zealand is likely to face significant future cyberattacks.
“There are two types of organisations – those that have been hacked and those that don’t know they’ve been hacked. This includes both government and private sector organisations,” Nassiokas said.
“However, all New Zealand organisations need to consider a commercially feasible cyber strategy involving a smart combination of technology, people and process controls to achieve an optimal level of cyber security and cyber resilience.”
