Global · Technological
Critical Infrastructure Cyberattack
SevereAttacks on power, water, telecommunications, health and financial systems by state or criminal actors.
- Likelihood
- High — intrusions are already confirmed
- Impact
- Severe; potentially cascading
- Horizon
- Now
Background
What this actually is
Western intelligence agencies have publicly confirmed that state actors are pre-positioned inside critical infrastructure networks — not stealing data, but establishing access to be used during a future conflict. The technique is 'living off the land', using legitimate administrative tools so intrusions are hard to detect.
Separately, ransomware has industrialised. Hospitals, councils, ports and water utilities are routinely hit because their operational technology is old, hard to patch, and cannot be taken offline for maintenance.
The failure mode that matters is cascade: power depends on telecoms, telecoms depend on power, water depends on both, and payments depend on all three.
Aotearoa
What it means for New Zealand
The NCSC records thousands of incidents a year against nationally significant organisations. NZ's small market means many providers are single points of failure — a handful of banks, two main telcos, one national grid operator. The 2024 CrowdStrike outage showed how a non-malicious software fault alone could ground flights and halt retail nationwide.
Watch for
Early warning signs
- NCSC or CERT NZ advisories naming a sector
- Multiple simultaneous outages across unrelated services
- Bank or telco service degradation without a stated cause
- International advisories about pre-positioning in infrastructure
Action
How to prepare
- 01
Assume digital payment can fail: keep useful cash at home
- 02
Use a password manager, unique passwords and app-based two-factor authentication
- 03
Keep offline copies of identity documents, insurance policies and key contacts
- 04
For businesses: offline backups tested by actual restoration, not just taken
Go deeper
Where to find more information
In an emergency
New Zealand's official channels
- Get Ready — household preparedness
- Civil Defence / NEMA
- GeoNet — quakes, volcanoes, tsunami
- MetService severe weather warnings
In a life-threatening emergency call 111. RNZ National is New Zealand's designated lifeline broadcaster — keep a battery radio.
Connected
Related threats
Get prepared
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