NZX Down After an Overseas Cyber Attack

An overseas cyberattack disrupted what could have been an optimistic trading day for NZX.

The felony, identified, as a DDoS or Distributed Denial-of-Service, interfered with regular traffic on the platform’s network resource causing a temporary halt.

Due to this, the New Zealand Stock Exchange and its network provider, Spark, decided to discontinue trading in the cash market for the day.

Shortly after, there was a statement confirming the disturbance. This came with a reassurance that everything is now under control and that connectivity has already been restored.

Nevertheless, the NZX 50 is up by 0.6%, translating to 72 points. The index hit 1193 at the end of the stock trading session.

This is just 114 points away from its previous record high from February 21.

Analysts project that, all things being favorable in the coming days, the NZX will surpass the incumbent record.

Among the biggest pullers is Meridian Energy, with share price spiking by 5.8%.

Similarly, New Zealand Media and Entertainment recorded an impressive 45% increase in its share price. This is mainly due to its positive half-year results announcement.

The Attack Continues

Just when investors thought that everything was really under control, the overseas attackers brought about a round two.

The New Zealand Stock Exchange once again halted trading after it went offline at 11:24 am today.

Some connectivity was immediately restored, but many operations were put on hold, particularly NZX mainboard, NZX debt market, and Fonterra shareholders market.

Consequently, public and private-sector organizations in Australia also experienced the same dilemma caused by foreign hackers.

The successive attacks raised investor concerns on NZX’s security.

Computer science experts noted that the assault is very serious. Attackers manifested a rare level of sophistication in the execution of their crimes.

Now that skills and software are widely available for cyber assailants, NZX must ramp up its game to keep up or else similar incidents may reoccur in no time.