New Zealand has passed a law that criminalizes one of the least desirable facets of the internet: cyberbullying. The legislation effectively prohibits sending messages to people that are racist, sexist, critical of their religion, sexuality or disability.
Customs are seeking the power to require people to disclose passwords to their electronic devices when entering New Zealand.
It said the power would be useful in helping detect objectionable material and evidence of other offending, such as drugs offences, as well as to verify people's travel plans.
A $12.7 million supercomputer owned by Niwa has been targeted by a computer hacker believed to have come from China.
The computer, known as FitzRoy, is housed in a specially constructed room at the National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research base at Greta Point, Wellington.
Telecom's email service, provided by global internet giant Yahoo, has been compromised by hackers for at least the fourth time in the last 12 months.
And Telecom says it has no idea how bad the latest attack might be, or where it's coming from.
"At this point we don't have confirmation of the cause or the scale of the problem," the company told the New Zealand Herald. "In the meantime our advice to customers is that they should mark suspicious looking emails as junk/spam and should never click on the links contained in them, even if the emails come from a known contact."
New Zealand’s first cyber security lab will be opened at the University of Waikato on Tuesday, coinciding with the launch of a new qualification, the Master of Cyber Security degree.
The lab, dubbed CROW (Cyber Security Researchers of Waikato), will focus on returning control of data to data owners by focussing on research addressing data security from a user-centric perspective. It will develop innovative solutions to allow users to know what happens to their data, particularly when it is stored in a cloud environment.
The New Zealand government has softened its contentious network surveillance bill by removing a ban on operators selling overseas services in the country if they are deemed in breach of national security requirements.
Communications and information technology minister Amy Adams yesterday tabled a supplementary order paper (PDF) with changes to the proposed Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Bill (TCIS), based on feedback from from the public and the industry as well as recommendations from the parliamentary Law and Order select committee.
Anonymous hacktivists launched a campaign against the New Zealand government after the world learned that police and spy agencies had been monitoring communications.
Last week, Anonymous issued a video statement threatening the government.
New spy laws legalising domestic communications interception were narrowly passed in New Zealand yesterday by a vote of 61 to 59 in Parliament.
The Government argued the laws are necessary to clarify the powers of the Government Communications Services Bureau (GCSB), New Zealand's cyber security agency, when it is asked to assist law enforcement agencies such as Police and the Security Intelligence Service.
New Zealand's signals intelligence and networks protection agency suffered potential embarrassment yesterday after its website went down for two hours, and its backup arrangements failed as well.
The Government Communications Security Bureau or GCSB is responsible for eavesdropping on communications in the Pacific and New Zealand as part of the "Five Eyes" or AUSCANNZUKUS agreement, and cooperates with the UK's General Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States.
The ruling party in New Zealand has decided to drop a controversial plan to expand patenting of software in the island nation. The move was hailed by IT professionals and open Internet advocates.
