As everything from the New Zealand stock market to weather reporting agencies is being targeted by cyberattacks, Andrew little, the Minister for Justice said that the nation is experiencing digital incidents at a devastating scale.
Speaking to Associated Press, Mr. Little said that the law enforcement agencies are busy tracking the perpetrators behind the attacks. But the activity seems to be cumbersome as tracking down 1000s of zombie computers launching denial of service attacks is extremely difficult and time taking.
Andrew also stressed on the fact that some targeted organizations are now receiving emails demanding ransom in exchange for the blockage of attacks. Reiterating the official advice, Mr. Little is urging victims not to pay a ransom of any sort to hackers as it encourages crime and doesn’t guaranty anything.
Usually, all these days, hackers launching ransomware attacks were seen demanding a ransom for offering a decryption tool in exchange. But now, the bad guys are seen demanding a ransom for not launching cyberattacks added little.
NZ Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) is working on a full scale to protect organizations from being targeted by global cyber attack campaigns.
Note 1– Most of the attacks are being launched by exploiting the vulnerabilities in operating systems and other software along with some hardware. This was confirmed by the GCSB while it was investigating an attack on NZX Stock Exchange.
Note 2- New Zealand’s MetService was also hit by a cyber attack early this week, prompting the government to review the security measures that were protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure.
