New Zealand

IT security firms have been asked to put themselves up for membership of a special-purpose panel to provide security services across all of government.

The move is partly in response to a number of recent incidents involving privacy and security breaches at government agencies, commissioning agency the Department of Internal Affairs says. It sees the panel arrangement as a way of ensuring more consistency in security “skills and techniques” provided to agencies.

Details of every claimant in the New Zealand Government's Canterbury home repair programme have been disclosed by accident, the country's Earthquake Commission (EQC) said.

A spreadsheet emailed by the commission containing claim numbers and addresses of properties could be set to reveal details of from all 83,000 people who have filed 98,000 claims in the wake of the devastating Christchurch earthquake, the commission's chief executive Ian Simpson told New Zealand media this afternoon.

Two New Zealand ISPs have reported falling traffic after that nation's controversial new "three strikes" copyright enforcement legislation went into effect at the start of the month. Kiwi Internet users may have been spooked by the threat of fines as high as NZ$15,000.