The New Zealand government plans on giving a face-lift to its existing cyber-security strategies and action plans that were introduced in 2015. They plan on refreshing their strategies and introduce a better approach to cyber-hacking.
According to Clare Curran – Digital Media, Communications and Broadcasting Minister, the number of cyber-threats have increased and are providing criminals with new pathways to harm New Zealand. She further says that the increasing usage of connected devices and the challenges of advance technology are just increasing the cyber-security threat.
Clair Curran said that, “So it’s timely for us to step up New Zealands cyber security efforts so that we are not left vulnerable to cyber intrusion and to refresh the 2015 strategy so we can deal with increasingly bold, brazen, and disruptive threats.” She further adds saying, “This government has committed to building a connected nation, promoting, and protecting digital rights. We intend to close the digital divides by 2020, and to make ICT the second largest contributor to GDP by 2025. A modern, responsive cyber security system is essential to this.”
The new cyber-security plan penned by Curran points out to the National Cyber Security Center’s Cyber Threat Report 2016-17 that reveals that the Center had recorded around 396 incidents in the 12 month time and on 31 occasions they were able to provide “hands-on, intensive incident response”
This shows that the cyber-security threats are increasing instead of becoming weak. The report led on to say that, “Cyber threat actors are increasingly bold, brazen, and disruptive. New Zealands geographical location does not exempt us from this threat.”
The Cabinet and the Department of Prime Minister accepted the 2nd Cyber-Strategy and National Plan in regards to the Cybercrime in November 2015. The plan says that, “The strategy has served us well as an overarching framework for cross-government work under four goals: Cyber resilience, cyber capability, addressing cybercrime, and international cooperation.”
Curran adds saying that, “The problems are growing, and it’s timely to look at what more can be done to improve New Zealand’s cyber defenses.” This plan is similar to the efforts of United Kingdom and Australia against cyber-crime.
“A refresh of the Cyber Security Strategy and Action Plan would enable us to test whether we are investing the right resources and structuring our efforts, in the right way, across protective security, civilian, military, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies to make the greatest improvement to the security of our digital infrastructure and communications,” continues the plan.
This plan will be a more joined-up approach with a partnership between the non-government organizations and the private sector. Curran further addresses the plan by saying that this refreshing of the strategies and the action plan will provide them with an opportunity to take a look at the role of cyber security agencies.
She explains the plan by saying, “”A structured approach to ensuring private sector engagement with the government’s work (and vice versa) might be one option for consideration. This could include considering models such as advisory boards or a cyber security council. It may help us to get the right level of engagement with the private sector on cyber-security — a challenge which our international partners also face.”
Sources: Open Gov