Stock exchange of New Zealand suffered cyber-attacks disrupting trading activities for the fourth consecutive day as on August 28th, 2020. The NZ$204 billion equivalent to $135 billion market suffered which halted trading on the exchange.
When asked about the source of these attacks, all the stock exchange authorities commented was that it was from “offshore” source.
According to Akamai, which is a security agency, it is said that they had warned against a group of extortionists that are claiming to be members of Fancy Bear, which is a hacking group of Russian origin.
Action of the Cyber attacks
This hacking group is believed to be sending “ransom letters” to several companies that operate in different domains like e-commerce, finance, and travel industry across the UK, United States, and Asia-Pacific.
Demand of the Attacking group
They demand payments against the condition that they would not continue with the cyber attacks again. So, they are asking for ransom.
The New Zealand stock exchange was one of their targets. However, there was no comment on this from NZX.
Stock Exchange Scenario after attack
The scenario resulting from the cyber attacks witnessed displeased investors that were not able to carry out with their trading activities especially during a season when the probability of gaining high is galore.
As per Michael Midgley, who is the chief executive officer of New Zealand Shareholders Association stated that, “The outages are hugely disruptive for everyone”. He also mentioned that another cause of concern is fall in Stock exchange is halt in flow of information due to Covid-19 pandemic.
How did the attack impact the Stock Market?
The New Zealand Stock Exchange lost one hour of trading on Tuesday. On Wednesday, it lost 3 hours, and 6 hours on Thursday due to repeated attacks. This drastically hit the Stock Market.
Impact on figures
The S&P/NZX-50 index saw a rise of 0.2% recorded at 12,053, when trading activities stopped on Thursday. It recorded closing at a record high of 12,073. However, when trading activities resumed again on Friday, there was a decline in figure that was recorded at 0.3%.
According to New Zealand Stock Exchange officials, it revealed that it was working in tandem with international as well as national cyber security partners like Government Communications Security Bureau so that this issue could be addressed.
