New Zealand's stock exchange has finally resumed operations after being shut down for four straight days due to a prolonged cyber attack on its network. The exchange confirmed that it was able to resume regular trading activities today, Friday, at 1 p.m. local time (9 p.m. ET Thursday).
The New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) revealed that the attacks on its systems began on Tuesday. Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks hit its network, with the agency revealing that the attacks had come from outside the country. NZX was not able to resume operations on Wednesday and Thursday as the continuous attacks bogged down its systems.
Debt and equity trading during the four days was temporarily suspended as the exchange launched an investigation into the attacks. A DDoS attack is a type of cyberattack that floods a network with large amounts of fake internet traffic. Due to the large volume of traffic, servers are often forced to shut down and regular user access to the system becomes nearly impossible.
NZX stated that it still hasn't determined the motives for the attack and no one has yet claimed to be responsible. The exchange added that it also hasn't received any ransom demands. When asked about its plan of action, NZX stated that it is its policy to not publicly comment on its cybersecurity plans or how it responds to specific threats. The exchange did state that it is working closely with its network provider to identify the source of the attacks.
Cyberattacks such as ransomware and DDoS attacks have become increasingly common, with the frequency of attacks escalating as the world shifts online amid the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that one of his company's facilities was the target of a failed ransomware attack.
According to cybersecurity firm Nexusguard, DDoS attacks had increased by more than 542 percent in the first quarter of the year. Cybercriminals can easily get access to this type of hack through the dark web. Nexusguard revealed that DDoS attacks are also inexpensive as criminals can get access to these types of illicit services relatively cheaply.
As more companies transfer their operations in public and private clouds, cyberattacks have become very lucrative. Cybersecurity firm Tenable revealed that online attacks have become more sophisticated over the past months in an attempt to keep up with enhanced network security systems being put up by financial organizations.
