With cyberattacks hitting the New Zealand stock exchange for the fourth day on Friday, the government has activated its national security systems in response to the repeated breaches.
On Friday morning, NZX was forced to suspend trading due to yet another distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. The main board, the debt market, and the Fonterra shareholders’ market were the most hit by the attack. Trading later resumed at 1pm.
DDoS attacks overwhelm the target server with internet traffic from multiple sources, rendering it inaccessible to legitimate users.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) has been called, Reuters reported.
“I can’t go into much more in terms of specific details other than to say that we as a government are treating this very seriously,” Robertson was quoted as saying in the report.
While NZX and GCSB have yet to confirm the perpetrator of the attacks, it revealed that the source was offshore. The possibility of state actors being behind the attacks was also not discounted.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand warned that cyber-attacks could lead to the loss of around 2% to 3% of profits of the banking and insurance industries each year. Furthermore, the attacks have raised doubts about the effectiveness of New Zealand’s cybersecurity systems, with such a vital component of the economy being left exposed to cyber criminals.
