By Angela Beswick
Cyber safety organisation NetSafe has praised the Government’s new strategy to combat cyber crime.
The New Zealand Cyber Security Strategy aims to improve the country’s protection against cyber threats, bringing forward initiatives aimed at improving cyber security for individuals, businesses, national infrastructure and the Government.
Part of the strategy includes setting up a National Cyber Security Centre within the Government Communications Security Bureau.
This centre will strive to protect the Government and New Zealand businesses from cyber attack and improve our "cyber resilience".
NetSafe executive director Martin Cocker says a key problem with cyber crime in New Zealand is the ease with which it is committed, and the difficulty in prosecuting it.
“We just need to enable our enforcement agencies and courts and so forth to meet the costs of prosecuting it effectively,” he told 3 News.
Communications and Information Technology Minister Steven Joyce says the Government is working with security partners such as non-profit group Netsafe, on cyber security issues, to review the country’s legal framework in relation to cyber crime.
“We’re an education agency primarily and our job is to educate people on security concepts so that they can be as self-managing as possible and that’s going to be our major contribution to this strategy,” says Mr Cocker.
The move will create a strong platform which we can build from to meet new cyber security challenges as they emerge, Mr Joyce says.
At present more than 75 percent of New Zealanders have the internet at home. More than 77 percent of businesses use internet banking and 50 percent of those who live rurally buy goods and services online.
“The truth is that the cyber criminal element have quickly progressed their use of technology and the rest of us have probably not kept up as well as we could – whether that’s the legal fraternity or whether that’s cyber security educators like ourselves - we’ve just let the bad guys get a little bit of a jump on us,” says Mr Cocker.
“I don’t think it’s fair to blame consumers for making security errors. In many cases, it’s simply because they don’t understand all the ins and outs of computer security and the way cyber criminals work. I think it’s a good move by the Government to include awareness in the strategy and for us to take that on as a role.”
Government units have already been established to tackle spam, identity theft, electronic crime and critical infrastructure protection. In addition, the Government provides support to cyber safety education organisation NetSafe.
3 News