Cert NZ Quarterly Report: Data Landscape Q1 & Q2 2020

The Cert NZ Quarter One (Q1) and Quarter Two (Q2) Report for January – June 2020 has been published. Covid-19 disrupted the activities of all New Zealand businesses and organisations this year. For CERT NZ, it meant the production of the 2020 Q1 report was interrupted. This publication provides a half year picture of the data and trends in 2020, rather than the quarterly focus. “CERT NZ received a greater number of incident reports between January and June, compared with the same period in 2019. Although some incidents were clearly the result of opportunistic cyber attackers taking advantage of the COVID-19 environment, the bulk of the reports were not specifically COVID-19 themed. The increase in reporting is a welcome sign that New Zealanders are becoming more cyber smart and more vigilant online. However, cyber attackers are also increasingly sophisticated, and the need for effective cyber security measures has never been more pressing”

Introduction

The report for Q1 and Q2 2020 provides a standardised set of results and graphs for the first half of 2020, and an analysis of the latest trends. Analytical comment is provided where meaningful or interesting trends are identified.

The report covers quarters one and two (1 January – 30 June) 2020, and supplements the:

• CERT NZ Quarterly Report: Highlights Q1 & Q2 2020, providing an overview of the cyber security incidents reported during the first two quarters of 2020.
• CERT NZ 2020 Half Year Summary, providing and overview of what we have seen and done so far this year.

All three documents can be found at: https://www.cert.govt.nz/about/quarterly-report/

Incidents and referrals

Incident summary

Between 1 January and 30 June 2020, 3,102 incidents were reported to CERT NZ.

Of the 3,102 incidents reported:

• 2,528 (81%) were responded to directly by CERT NZ
• 562 (18%) were referred to New Zealand Police
• 10 (0.3%) were referred to the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).
• 2 (0.06%) were referred to the National Cyber Security Centre

Download the report to find out more.