New Zealand’s stock exchange resumes trading after facing disruption for fourth day in a row
Ticker tape signage displayed on an office building in the CBD showing the current state of share markets and world business on March 13, 2020 in Auckland, New Zealand. The NZX50 opened sharply down on Friday, dropping by 8.3 per cent as world markets fall amid fears over the spread of Covid-19.
Dave Rowland | Getty Images
New Zealand’s stock exchange was down for a fourth day in a row Friday after experiencing multiple cyber attacks earlier this week.
The NZX Main Board, NZX Debt Market and Fonterra Shareholders’ Market were in a trading halt despite bourse operator New Zealand’s Exchange earlier saying that the stock exchange would reopen following measures put it place to maintain system connectivity, Reuters reported.
NZX’s website remained inaccessible as of 8:27 a.m. HK/SIN.
In a statement to the bourse, NZX said the pre-open of the main board and the Fonterra Shareholders’ Market was extended Friday and they were moved straight from pre-open to halt at around 10:32 a.m. local time, Reuters reported. The NZX Debt Market was also reportedly placed on a trading halt at 9:58 a.m. local time.
NZX said it experienced DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks from overseas through its network service provider on Tuesday and Wednesday. That disrupted trading on both days but at different times. On Thursday, trading was again halted due to network connectivity issues related to the earlier attacks.
DDoS attacks are among the simplest forms of cyber attacks to execute. It involves delivering a heavy stream of information and internet traffic, usually with the help of a network of hacked computers, to overwhelm the systems of a target.
The main NZX 50 index was last at 12,054.75.
New Zealand Herald reported that Finance Minister Grant Robertson was expected to comment on the issue during his scheduled Covid-19 news conference.