The New Zealand stock exchange continues to grapple with a crippling cyber attack that has knocked the main market offline for the fourth day in a row.
The Exchange Website remain offline at time of writing - despite plans to resume trading at 1.00pm - as hackers crashed the system via a heavyweight Distributed Denial of Service DDoS attack. The hacking group is vowing to keep up the pressure until the Exchange coughs up a bitcoin ransom.
New Zealand Finance Minister Grant Robertson said at a press conference that the government is aware of the situation and that it has directed the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) to provide assistance to NZX.
“There are limits to what I can say today about the action the government is taking behind the scenes due to significant security considerations,” Robertson said. “I can’t go into much more in terms of specific details, other than to say that we as a government are treating this very seriously. We are aware of the impact that it is having and that is why we have directed the GCSB to help the NZX with this situation.”
The latest attack comes at the end of a torrid week for the market operator, which has been forced to halt trading in its cash markets for four days in a row.