Security News > 2020 > August > Cyber Attack Halts New Zealand Stock Market for Third Straight Day
Cyber attacks forced New Zealand's stock exchange to halt trading Thursday for the third time in as many days, its operator said Thursday, just as the country's corporate reporting season gets underway.
The New Zealand Exchange said the bourse was placed into a trading halt at about 11.10am local time "As a result of network connectivity issues relating to DDoS cybersecurity attacks".
Temporary trading halts were ordered as a result, he added, with the market down from 3.57pm to 5.00pm Tuesday and again from 11.24pm to 3.00pm Wednesday, a spokesman told AFP. The exchange's website also crashed as a result of the cyberattacks, which experts believe likely originated offshore.
The latest trading halt came just hours after Air New Zealand announced a roughly US$300 million annual net loss as it was battered by plummeting demand.
Though such cyber attacks are not common in New Zealand, government agency CERT NZ reported a 42 percent spike in reported cybersecurity incidents in the first half of this year, with finance the most frequently targeted sector.