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The Government Communications Security Bureau is trumpeting an advance against cybercrime amid a spate of publicity about successful scams.
GCSB deputy director-general Lisa Fong said a service it offers internet providers had blocked nearly 75,000 attempted exploits against One NZ’s broadband and mobile customers since it was deployed by the company on its network last week.
“These events typically relate to malware activity, remote scanning or exploitation, and phishing,” she said.
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The Malware Free Networks service was developed by the GCSB’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
“Millions” of New Zealanders were now better protected against cybercrime as a result of the deployment, it said.
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The GCSB says it provides Malware Free Networks to internet providers at no cost, but it is up to telcos to decide how to offer it to customers.
One NZ chief enterprise officer Lindsay Zwart said it had worked with a service provider, Defend, to offer the service to its customers at no extra cost.
“It’s early days, but we can already see tangible results of Malware Free Networks protecting New Zealanders across the country,” she said.
The GCSB said Spark was also “a Malware Free Networks partner” and it was engaging with other operators to see how they could offer the service.
“We make MFN available to partners for them to apply to their services. How partners offer the service to their customers and deploy it on their networks is a commercial decision for them.”
The advance comes amid concerns that even experienced computer users are continuing to lose large sums of money to scams – an issue that can be exacerbated by faster bank transfers that give people less time to realise their mistakes before they are fleeced.
A Queenstown woman reported losing $42,000 after falling for a text scam that advised her a new device had logged on to her account.
Technology commentator Russell Brown said he was left “sobbing” after falling victim to a similar scam last month.
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