National Cyber Security Centre opens

The new National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has officially opened today.

The centre is charged with helping to defend government agencies and critical infrastructure providers against cyber threats.

The Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Steven Joyce, says the global threat from cyber intrusions is real and growing, and New Zealanders and the New Zealand economy are not immune.

“Cyber security is becoming increasingly important for New Zealanders, businesses and government. Cyber intrusions have the potential to impact on the reliability of critical infrastructure, government services, and the economy.”

The government released New Zealand’s Cyber Security Strategy in June this year, which outlines targeted initiatives to improve New Zealand’s cyber security. The priorities are to increase awareness and online security; protect government systems and information; and strengthen incident response and planning.

The NCSC is a key part of the strategy and will build on existing cyber security and information assurance capabilities to provide enhanced protection for government agencies. The NCSC will have three main initial functions:

• Provide advice and support to help develop secure networks
• Detect and respond to sophisticated cyber threats
• Coordinate and assist operational responses to major cyber events of national importance.

The NCSC will also absorb the existing functions of the Centre for Critical Infrastructure Protection (CCIP).

“This is an important step in building New Zealand’s capacity to protect against sophisticated cyber threats,” says Mr Joyce

“New Zealanders will benefit from enhanced protection of government data and services, and critical national infrastructure, which will help to protect critical services.”

The NCSC will be hosted within the Government Communications Security Bureau and is operational from today. Further information and contact details are available on the NCSC website www.ncsc.govt.nz.