NZ stock market continues trading despite new cyber attack

WELLINGTON • New Zealand's stock market was hit by a fifth day of cyber attacks yesterday, which led to its website crashing. But it continued trading after switching to a contingency plan for the release of market announcements.

NZX was halted for most of last week due to the attacks, which the authorities have said originated offshore.

Yesterday's attack came shortly after NZX said it had agreed with the Financial Markets Authority on a backup plan for the release of market announcements.

A spokesman for NZX confirmed the website was down, but said trading, which began at 10am, was continuing as usual through the contingency arrangements.

He declined to comment on who was behind the attacks, whether there had been any extortion demand or what measures have been put in place to stop future attacks.

The bourse said in a statement that the exchange was working with its network's service provider, Spark, government cyber-security agencies, and US-based cyber-security firm Akamai Technologies to implement extra security steps.

"NZX has been advised by independent cyber specialists that the attacks last week are among the largest, most well-resourced and sophisticated they have ever seen in New Zealand," NZX chief executive Mark Peterson said.

The bourse faced disruptions for four days last week when it was hit repeatedly by distributed denial of service attacks, a common way to disrupt a server by overwhelming it with a flood of Internet traffic.

The attacks forced NZX to halt trading in its cash markets, disrupting operations in its debt market, Fonterra Shareholders Market and derivatives market.

NZX said its core trading platforms were not hit in last week's attacks but the public-facing website crashed, affecting the exchange's ability to publish market announcements. "At those times, NZX made the decision to halt the market in order to maintain market integrity."

New Zealand, a relatively small economy with a population of five million, is not often the target of such attacks but neighbouring Australia ramped up its cyber security this year after a rise in similar incidents.

REUTERS