An increasing risk requiring a multi-faceted legal response
Cyber-attacks on businesses and other organisations are on the rise as is the damage they cause. Cyber-crime is now thought to have surpassed all other types of crime combined. It is no longer unusual to read of a major cyber-attack that has caused significant disruption, often to a ‘household name’ firm or organisation.
In the past year alone, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the Waikato District Health Board, users of Microsoft Exchange, Air New Zealand via its passenger processing system provider SITA, NZ Post, Inland Revenue, MetService, Kiwibank and ANZ have all been the targets of cyber-attacks, resulting in varying degrees of disruption and damage.
Perhaps the most significant of these was the attack in May 2021 upon the Waikato DHB, which threw the public health system in the Waikato region into disarray. This left the DHB unable to manage and carry out routine medical procedures, resulting in cancellations of many patient procedures.The DHB eventually resorted to manual record-keeping and workarounds, including transferring a number of patients to other regions along with their clinicians. A month later,…
