At a glance.
- Cybersecurity roles and missions in New Zealand.
- Further reflections on China's cryptocurrency ban.
- Connecticut's data breach law.
A quick guide to Wellington’s cyber roles and responsibilities.
Security Brief breaks down the “who’s who” of New Zealand’s cybersecurity agencies. The Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) is responsible for signals intelligence, information security, and emerging technologies risk assessments. Threat detection and incident response fall under the purview of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Computer Emergency Response Team New Zealand (CERT NZ) oversees incident reporting and information sharing, while the NZ Police Cybercrime unit and Police Financial Crime Group Asset Recovery Unit handle technical and digital crimes.
The Digital Economy and Communications ministry, ICT Security and Related Services Panel, National Cyber Policy Office, Cyber Security Strategy, and Cyber Security Emergency Response Plan (CSERP) also shape and guide national policy. Last but not least, the charity Netsafe does educational outreach.
The inevitability of China’s alt-coin ban.
Wired thinks cryptocurrency’s decentralized model has always been on a collision course with Beijing’s dream of a Government-directed economy. For nearly a decade, the CCP has dispensed progressively more aggressive crypto prohibitions, but the latest comprehensive ban might prove the final nail in the industry’s coffin. Offshore wallets and exchanges are already blocking Chinese IP addresses, and local miners are retiring or relocating.
Where alt-coin is risky, speculative, private, competitive, borderless, and relatively unregulated, Beijing favors five-year plans, the ‘common good,’ Government oversight and surveillance, and state-run initiatives. Wired concludes that “China’s cryptocurrency sector is over for now”—but the future of blockchain remains bright in the country.
Connecticut’s data breach law takes effect.
The US state of Connecticut’s revised data breach regulation broadens the definition of personal information and tightens disclosure timelines to sixty days, Bloomberg reports, imposing more stringent obligations on breached firms. The statute comes into effect today. Baker & Hostetler attorney Ben Wanger says, “These updates are indicative of the direction states are going.”
An Arctic Wolf survey of fourteen-hundred IT leaders, summarized by Security Magazine, suggests one motive behind the regulatory enthusiasm. Sixty-one percent of respondents confessed to covering up breaches, and almost eighty percent said they’d hand over a ransom. Also of note: just fifteen percent think diplomacy holds promise as a means of curtailing attacks, while thirty-one percent would put stock in retaliation.