Kiwis report $5.3million lost to cyber security in 2017

Kiwis report $5.3million lost to cyber security issues in 2017

CERT NZ has today released its final figures for 2017, showing that New Zealanders reported more than $5.3 million lost to cyber security issues to CERT NZ, New Zealand’s dedicated cyber security unit.

“Since launching in April 2017, we’ve seen New Zealanders from all walks of life reporting cyber security issues to us. More than 1000 reports were received by CERT NZ in 2017,” says Rob Pope, Director, CERT NZ.

“While loss is about more than dollars and cents, each quarter we continue to see a marked increase in the financial value of losses that people and organisations have experienced. In the last quarter of 2017, people reported $3.4 million in losses - more than double the financial losses reported in quarter three.

“The small business community are often targeted by cyber criminals through the use of invoice scams and phishing campaigns. This year we heard all too often that business owners thought they were too small to be a target and didn’t need to worry about cyber security issues. However, cyber criminals are indiscriminate in their targeting and anyone online can be affected,” said Mr Pope.

Another key trend CERT NZ saw in 2017 was a rise in cryptocurrency scams, with attackers trying to take advantage of increased investment in cryptocurrencies in New Zealand. These types of scams resulted in nearly $265,000 in losses in quarter four alone.

“Our work on cryptocurrency scams shows CERT NZ’s connecting role: we gather intelligence from our international counterparts and work with other government agencies that are seeing the impacts of cryptocurrency scams across the financial and regulatory sectors. We combine this information with the incident reports we receive to provide actionable advice and insights for New Zealanders,” says Mr Pope.

CERT NZ launched in April 2017 to help people connect with the help they need when experiencing cyber security issues, and providing expert advice to help all New Zealanders protect themselves from cybersecurity threats.

“We use data to help New Zealanders stay safe from cyber security threats and we need people to lodge a report with CERT NZ to help us build a more detailed picture of the issues Kiwis are facing in their online lives. Anyone can report a cyber security incident to CERT NZ and get help to recover. Receiving these reports also means we can proactively help other New Zealanders who may be affected by the same issue,” says Mr Pope.

If you or your organisation experiences a cyber security threat – or if you suspect you may have been exposed to one – contact CERT NZ any time atwww.cert.govt.nz or call 0800 CERT NZ, Monday to Friday, 7am – 7pm.

Read CERT NZ’s latest report on www.cert.govt.nz [link: https://www.cert.govt.nz/about/quarterly-report/q4-report-2017]

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