An escalating global cyberwar, in part driven by the war in Ukraine, is having an impact on New Zealand and Kiwis need to prepare, the Government says.
Digital Economy and Communications minister David Clark spoke to 1News after returning from a summit in Singapore with counterparts from other countries in the region.
There, governments spoke about the increasing cyberthreats their countries were facing, and what needed to be done to combat these.
"What we see happening is that the malicious actors around the world are ramping up their efforts," Clark said.
"Globally the threatscape is growing - we've seen what's happened in Ukraine where the cyberwarfare has been part of what's going on there."
New Zealand institutions were also under a barrage of attacks – often from people backed by states or regimes.
"We've seen in NZ the Waikato DHB incident, the Reserve Bank, NZ stock exchange, and we know at times our own banks have resisted threats here."
Most recently in Waikato, Pinnacle Midlands Health, a large network with 87 clinics across the North Island servicing 450,000 patients, was the victim of a malicious cyber attack.
Joerg Buss, information security expert at Darkscope, told 1News at the time the ransomware group BlackCat was likely behind the attack.
The group, which had Russian links, had been around since November 2021, when several other groups - DarkSide and BlackMatter - "disappeared".
"People can obtain products for ransomware and for phishing, for other things like that as a service these days ... paying a portion of the profits back to the criminals that create these programmes," Clark said.
"The importance of connecting with other ministers around the world is so we can share the learning in different jurisdictions and have the connection to those ministers when we have to swap notes.
"Cyberwarfare is out there and it's threatening."
Tech commentator Paul Spain said these kinds of state-based cyber-attacks seem to be "ramping up in different ways".
"There are huge benefits for nation states that are unscrupulous and willing to generate revenue or capture intellectual property through the means of cyberwarfare - which is unfortunate, but it is the reality."
And he didn't think the situation would get better anytime soon.
"There is a huge opportunity to profit from cybercrime and cyberwarfare – and I think it ultimately comes down to dollars and cents and where nation states are involved that's part of it, but also the power and political benefit they can gain."
The war in Ukraine was another contributing factor to an increase in global cyberattacks, he said.
"The war brings its extra reasons why players like Russia might double down on cyberattack – when we look at North Korea for example, they have been using cyber as a very powerful means of generating revenue for quite a number of years."
"If we look at Russia at the moment, they are burning through lots of funds and struggling in different ways because of what's happening with the war – I'm sure they are keen to gain any benefits at this time."
Clark said while there was work to be done about seeing if New Zealand legislation and regulations were up to date, every New Zealander could contribute to the country's digital security.
"Making sure we've got proper passwords, multi-factor authentication and making sure our software is up to date," he said.
"These are the most important things everyday people can do to protect themselves from cyber threats."
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