Michael Jagusch: National Cyber Security Centre Director of Mission Enablement on the number of cyber threats in NZ

Cyber threats are estimated to have cost New Zealanders $1.6 billion last year. 

New data from the National Cyber Security Centre has revealed half the country has been the target of online scam in the last six months. 

Up to 830,000 experienced some financial loss. 

Director of Mission Enablement Michael Jagusch says good cyber security practises can reduce harm. 

He says it includes using two-factor authentication and having long, unique passwords on main accounts. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Half of us were the target half of us the
target of online scams and frauds last year. That's according
to a new survey from the National Cybersecurity Center. It
found the cost of the country total one point six
billion in twenty twenty four. Mike Yagish the National Cybersecurity
Center with us this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Mike, good morning, Hey, good morning, Ryan, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yeah, good to have you on. So who's doing this targeting?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, this targeting will be a range of cyber criminals.
And what we know is, you know why we might
think that we might not be targeted, and these cybercriminals
would go after anyone who has information or money, and
so that really means that any of us could be
subject to these sorts of things.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Eight hundred and thirty thousand of US fell for scams
or were tricked by scams. The financial loss average was
twelve hundred and sixty dollars. What was what's the most
anyone's in that year? What's the most of someone or
a company lost?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Oh? Sure, it's a huge drains. You know, it goes
from tens of dollars up to hundreds of thousands and
hundreds of thousands. I think though What's important to remember
is that it's a financial loss here, but there's also
the loss of time, the loss of information, and the
emotional well being told. So although the money differs, and

(01:15):
you know, money means different things to different people, so
these can have huge impacts on the daily lives of us.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Have you managed to track any of the money, find
out who's actually doing it where the money has gone.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
No, there's not really been our focus through this report. Really,
what we're trying to do is kind of break down
this barrier where I think in Yealand feel this won't
happen to us, but our research who happens to over
half of us, So we therefore all need to take
some practical steps to improve our security.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Have you are you aware of any threats coming from
any of these scams coming from North Korea to New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
In this research, we have asked people about the threats
that they've faced, and we haven't helped them through detail
into each of the reports through the research.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Do you know generally outside of this research, are we
getting hacked and attacked by North Korea?

Speaker 2 (02:13):
When we do our and your reports, we say that
there are a ranger three actors out there summer.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Why don't we name Why don't we name them? Because
Google came out this year with a release and said
North Korea is attacking New Zealand and Australia.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
In some cases we do name states. I guess what
what is important for us is that often as a
if you're defending yourself or you're defending your organization, understanding
who did it isn't always the most important thing. Understanding
the techniques or the type of things that people are
doing is more important because that's how that helped you

(02:54):
inform your defense.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
We call them out, though, are you aware of any
from north career?

Speaker 2 (03:01):
And where is important for us to call it out?
We do so so. For example, last year we publicly
attributed an attack against our parliamentary services to the People's
Republic of China, and we do that when we believe
it's in the best interests for the country, But in
other times it's not necessarily required to inform the defenses

(03:24):
that people need to take.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
All right, I appreciate your time this morning, Mike, take
care of Mike Yagasy, National Cybersecurity Center, Director of Mission Enablement.
For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
to news talks.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
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