It's been a year...

It’s been a long year for everyone and in a general sense it seems that much of the country has an air of exhaustion about it. Recent Mood of the Nation research by TRA, found that New Zealanders are currently feeling high levels of uncertainty about the future. The impact of technology on our lives is one of the larger concerns.

From a cyber security perspective that makes sense. At CERT NZ, we’ve seen the year punctuated with incidents of various sizes and severity.

For a run down of how the year went for our Incident Response team, check out their end of year wrap up.

The advice we give can sometimes feel like a broken record – strong unique passphrases, multi-step authentication, automatic updates, and maintaining privacy online – but we know that people need to hear it and need to put it into action. Because the less information people have to go on, the more irrational and erratic their decisions become.

But it isn’t all doom and gloom from 2022.

• We launched our translated cyber security advice in 13 different languages and formats.
• Our Pacific Engagement team helped to establish CERTs in Samoa and Tonga as well and providing advice and education to other Pacific nations.
• The way we run campaigns changed based on the release of Cyber Change: Behavioural insights for being secure online. The guide was created for anyone working in the area of online security to give them insights to improve the effectiveness of cyber security interventions.

As we head into 2023, we don’t know exactly what threats will come our way, but we do know that cyber criminals don’t take a day off.

We know every incident affects people in very real ways, beyond just financial impacts.

And for this reason we never stay complacent in our work and are continuously improving our service.

Here at CERT NZ, we’re working on a series of projects and initiatives designed to help New Zealanders stay secure online and receive the support they need if they are targeted. It’s exciting stuff and I’m proud of our ‘CERTies’ working hard at getting them over the line.

I hope you all have an excellent holiday period. Remember to stay safe on and offline, and if you get a new phone or laptop for Christmas, make sure you keep it secure!