There have been 17 reports of losses to cyber crime of more than $100,000. File photo. Photo: Unsplash / RNZ
- New Zealanders lost $6.8m to cyber crime during the final three months of last year, a 91 percent increase in a year
- The sum is up 24 percent on the previous quarter
- During this period there were 17 reports of losses of more than $100,000
- Although financial losses had increased, overall reporting of attacks through the NCSC had dropped 34 percent
New Zealanders lost $6.8 million to cyber crime in the final three months of 2024 - a 91 percent increase in 12 months - according to a new report.
The report by the government's cyber security agency shows New Zealanders are enduring larger financial losses when targeted by online criminals.
The National Cyber Security Centre's (NCSC) quarterly report - released today reveals the sum was up 24 percent from $5.5 million during the previous three months.
Between 1 October and 31 December 2024, there were 17 reports of "incidents" involving losses of more than $100,000.
NCSC threat and incident response team lead Tom Roberts said these attacks accounted for $4.7 million of total losses recorded during the quarter.
"This is the largest number of high-loss incidents we have seen in a quarter," he said.
"These incidents are also quite varied, ranging from cyber attacks on computers and accounts, to cyber-enabled scams.
"Interestingly, many of these incidents started with a phone call from someone impersonating a well-known organisation, and led to the compromise of computers and accounts."
Although financial losses had increased, cyber threat reporting through the agency had dropped 34 percent in three months.
Reports of phishing and credential harvesting had also dropped 54 percent compared to the previous quarter.
Scams and fraud overtook phishing as the most commonly reported offence, despite a 15 percent drop of reports of this nature.
"A decrease in numbers doesn't mean there's less cyber crime," Roberts said.
"We know cyber crime is underreported and we need your reports to better understand and respond to the threats New Zealand faces.
"When you report to us, we can alert other New Zealanders and help protect them from cyber attacks and scams."
There was a total of 1358 incident reports recorded by the NCSC, including 100 that were escalated to specialist teams because of their "potential national significance".
This was a slight increase on the 98 reports seen between July and September.
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