New Zealand has opened an investigation into a cyberattack that allegedly originated overseas and targeted the country’s stock exchange. The cyberattack targeted the financial markets for at least four days. The Financial minister for New Zealand stated that he had asked a spy agency, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), to aid the government in their investigation into the attack.
The cyberattacks caused periodic outages in the financial markets from Tuesday to Friday of last week. The National Security System was also activated, which binds government agencies together to focus on sharing gathered information on one investigation. The GCSB provides cybersecurity for New Zealand’s critical infrastructure as well as gathers and disseminates intelligence. New Zealand is also a member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which joins together the US, Britain, Australia, and Canada in sharing information related to national security threats. According to authorities, the attacks were likely sophisticated and severe DDoS attacks.
Read More: New Zealand spy agency investigating ‘severe’ cyberattack on stock exchange
