New Zealand calls in spy agency amid cyber attacks on bourse
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Wellington — New Zealand called in its spy agency and activated security crisis plans to help defend the stock exchange from overseas attack, after hackers disrupted the market for a fourth straight day.
“We as a government are treating this very seriously,” finance minister Grant Robertson said on Friday, adding agencies would co-ordinate to deal with the threat. “There are limits to what I can say today about the action the government is taking behind the scenes due to significant security considerations.”
The NZ$204bn stock market has been the target of distributed-denial-of-service attacks that have overwhelmed its website and forced trading halts since Tuesday. The national security plan is triggered in response to a crisis that threatens New Zealand’s interests or international reputation.
Authorities have not commented on the suspected source of the attacks, which flood a network with internet traffic and disrupt services, other than saying they originate from offshore. Security intelligence company Akamai warned earlier this week that extortionists claiming to be the Russian-linked hacking group Fancy Bear have recently been sending ransom letters to companies in finance, travel and e-commerce in the Asia Pacific, US and UK demanding payments to stop attacks.
New Zealand stock exchange operator NZX is among the companies targeted, the ZDNet website reported, citing an unidentified source in the DDoS mitigation field.
The exchange failed to open at 10am on Friday despite assurances from NZX that it would. Trading finally began three hours later. The market lost an hour of trading on Tuesday, three on Wednesday and almost six hours on Thursday from the repeat attacks. NZX has declined to comment on whether any demands have been made.
The disruptions, which come as the benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index nears a record high, are frustrating investors who were unable to trade amid a busy company earnings season.
‘Hugely disruptive’
The outages are “hugely disruptive for everyone,” said Michael Midgley, CEO of the New Zealand Shareholders’ Association. “Our main concern, aside from any attempted incursion, is that it is potentially damaging to information flows. In the Covid world the audience is keenly watching to see how reported data relates to forecasts.”
In November, government cyber security agency CERT NZ said it had received reports of extortion e-mails targeting companies within the financial sector in New Zealand. It said the e-mails claimed to be from a Russian group called “Fancy Bear/Cozy Bear” and demanded a ransom to ...
“We as a government are treating this very seriously,” finance minister Grant Robertson said on Friday, adding agencies would co-ordinate to deal with the threat. “There are limits to what I can say today about the action the government is taking behind the scenes due to significant security considerations.”
The NZ$204bn stock market has been the target of distributed-denial-of-service attacks that have overwhelmed its website and forced trading halts since Tuesday. The national security plan is triggered in response to a crisis that threatens New Zealand’s interests or international reputation.
Authorities have not commented on the suspected source of the attacks, which flood a network with internet traffic and disrupt services, other than saying they originate from offshore. Security intelligence company Akamai warned earlier this week that extortionists claiming to be the Russian-linked hacking group Fancy Bear have recently been sending ransom letters to companies in finance, travel and e-commerce in the Asia Pacific, US and UK demanding payments to stop attacks.
New Zealand stock exchange operator NZX is among the companies targeted, the ZDNet website reported, citing an unidentified source in the DDoS mitigation field.
The exchange failed to open at 10am on Friday despite assurances from NZX that it would. Trading finally began three hours later. The market lost an hour of trading on Tuesday, three on Wednesday and almost six hours on Thursday from the repeat attacks. NZX has declined to comment on whether any demands have been made.
The disruptions, which come as the benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index nears a record high, are frustrating investors who were unable to trade amid a busy company earnings season.
‘Hugely disruptive’
The outages are “hugely disruptive for everyone,” said Michael Midgley, CEO of the New Zealand Shareholders’ Association. “Our main concern, aside from any attempted incursion, is that it is potentially damaging to information flows. In the Covid world the audience is keenly watching to see how reported data relates to forecasts.”
In November, government cyber security agency CERT NZ said it had received reports of extortion e-mails targeting companies within the financial sector in New Zealand. It said the e-mails claimed to be from a Russian group called “Fancy Bear/Cozy Bear” and demanded a ransom to ...