According to the New Zealand’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), multiple DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks targeting a number of organisations in the country was reported.
On Wednesday, the websites of a number of financial institutions in New Zealand, as well as the country’s national postal service, were briefly unavailable due to a cyber attack, according to officials.
According to the New Zealand’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), multiple DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks targeting a number of organisations in the country was reported.
On its website, CERT stated that it was “monitoring the situation and are working with affected parties where we can,”
According to local media sources, the cyberattacks impacted websites of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group’s New Zealand site and NZ Post.
ANZ informed its customers via Facebook post that it was aware that some of them were unable to use online banking services. The post said “Our tech team are working hard to get this fixed, we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause,”
The “intermittent disruptions” on NZ Post’s website were caused by a issue with one of its third-party suppliers.
During DDoS attacks, high-profile institutions’ servers are clogged with incoming traffic from unnecessary requests that attempt to overrun the system and drown legitimate requests.
Following repeated attacks on the operator of New Zealand’s stock market a year earlier, a cyber-attack in January resulted in a severe data breach at the central bank of New Zealand.
In May, a group of hackers targeted hospitals.