Cyberattack takes down banks, IRD, MetService and NZ Post
WELLINGTON: Kiwibank and ANZ, along with New Zealand Post, Inland Revenue and the MetService all experienced blackouts due to a cyberattack yesterday morning.
Cyberattackers took down several New Zealand websites and services in what appears to have been a coordinated hit.
Kiwibank and ANZ customers also reported problems with internet banking and being locked out of their accounts.
The government computer emergency response team Ceret NZ confirmed it was monitoring multiple denial of service attacks.
Auckland University of Technology professor of computer science Dave Parry said the attacks were similar to those that hit businesses this year.
‘‘It’s very similar to the attacks that happened previously this year.
‘‘Effectively, what’s happening is that attackers, presumably criminal gangs, are effectively setting up lots of bots, as they’re called, which are computers they are controlling by inserting a virus into them and those are all over the world.’’
They then hit websites with so many requests the sites could not cope to provide their usual services, he said.
‘‘They attack you, then they ask for ransom money.’’
Criminal groups would be aware New Zealand had been in lockdown and this could provide added motivation to attack, he said.
‘‘Anywhere in lockdown is going to be using the internet more, so it’s a good time to attack if you’re doing that sort of thing.’’
Prof Parry said a lot of cyberattacks were coming from the USbased computers and gangs were orchestrating attacks from overseas to target places like New Zealand.