The New Zealand Government’s Communications Minister, Amy Adams, launched an action plan & national plan to address cybercrime and ensure New Zealanders are safe from online crime.
This new strategy highlights New Zealand’s vision- to ensure that New Zealand is secure, resilient, and prosperous online. With this strategy, individuals will remain safe online while New Zealand businesses are able to thrive and function. This strategy also notes that New Zealand being secure & resilient online is an essential element to creating a more productive and competitive economy.
The Cyber Security Strategy has 4 goals:
- Cyber Resilience- this involves the ongoing detection, protection & recovery from a cyber incident. The goals of this component are to ensure New Zealand’s most critical assets be protected, that agencies utilize cyber tools to further New Zeeland’s national security interests and to also ensure preparedness for any major cyber-attacks.
- Cyber Capability- this element's ultimate goal is to make sure New Zealanders at any level have the skills & tools necessary to protect themselves online, making it harder for cybercriminals to steal sensitive data. Ultimately, to spread the message of cyber security as broadly as possible, among individuals, businesses, government departments, and organizations.
- Addressing Cybercrime- this portion of the strategy focuses on improving New Zealand’s ability to prevent, investigate & respond to cybercrime. Prevention is at the core of the plan, and the challenges that come with this issue, as well as actions to prevent and reduce the harm to New Zealanders, is the goal.
- International Cooperation- this element of the strategy described New Zealand’s need to create international partnerships in particular with the Asia-Pacific region. Being deemed a cyber secure country will help boost the country’s international credibility, including the ability of businesses to be internationally competitive.
A key action in this plan is to develop a national CERT to reduce harm from cyber incidents and to improve the country’s ability to deal with these attacks. The CERT will act as a single entry point for all organizations or individuals needing assistance and will provide information to businesses of all sizes, government, and individuals so they can protect themselves from cyber criminals.
“The pace of change and emergence of new and complex threats mean constant vigilance is required. By refreshing the action plan each year, we will keep pace with any emerging threat”, Adams stated.
For a detailed version of the Cyber Security Strategy, click here
For the national plan, click here
For the action plan, click here
For the plan summary, click here