Cyber Threat Report for 2017/18 released

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has released its Cyber Threat Report [PDF, 718KB] [PDF, 686 KB] for the 2017/18 reporting year.

The NCSC, a part of the Government Communications Security Bureau, recorded 347 cyber security incidents in the reporting year from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018.

134 incidents (39 percent of the total) contained indicators that had been linked to known state-sponsored cyber actors. 

This is up nearly 10 percent from the 122 state-sponsored linked incidents recorded last year.

There has been a shift in the cyber threat landscape, with increasing avenues for cyber threats and changes in actor behaviour.

This has been offset by the NCSC’s increased ability to detect and disrupt threats at an early stage, and increased engagement with New Zealand’s organisations of national significance.

The vast majority of recorded incidents were detected at, or prior to, an actor’s first attempt to compromise an organisation, minimising the harm experienced by New Zealand organisations.

The NCSC conservatively estimates “gross reduced harm benefit” to New Zealand of $27m through the operation of its CORTEX capabilities for the 2017/18 period.

In the two years since July 2016, Project CORTEX has reduced an approximate total of NZD$67m in harm to New Zealand organisations.