New Zealand’s top intelligence agencies are becoming increasingly concerned about foreign interference and malicious cyber activity that continues to threaten local communities and organisations.
Speaking to the Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, Phil McKee, the acting Director-General of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS), said the most “insidious” examples concerned harassment of ethnic communities who speak out against actions of foreign powers.
“There are examples where information is collected on them and used to threaten whanau [extended family] members in their home country,” he told the committee.
“We have also seen attempts at foreign interference against university academics, local government officials, and the media.
“Foreign interference should not be tolerated. It is deliberately calculated and has the intent of undermining our democracy and the values we hold dear.”
He also said that increased public awareness is one of the most effective ways of countering foreign interference.
“If more people are aware of foreign interference, including the tactics used and the goals a foreign government is trying to achieve, then it will struggle to maintain a foothold in Aotearoa [New Zealand],” McKee said.
Meanwhile, the Director General of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), Andrew Hampton, told the committee that a rise in the region’s geostrategic competition was increasingly challenging New Zealand’s interests.
“Some states are more readily pursuing objectives in ways that run contrary to the international rules-based order, including through malicious cyber means,” he said.
Cybersecurity threats continue to be more sophisticated and impactful, but much of it can be prevented through “relatively simple” mitigations.
Hampton noted that a proportion of malicious actors who typically targeted New Zealand organisations have turned their attention elsewhere due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Significantly, over one-third of recorded incidents involved state-backed cyber actors, up from 28 percent the previous year.
Neither official named the countries that carried out harassment, foreign interference, and cyberattacks.
However, Hampton did highlight two recent significant state-sponsored cyber campaigns: the Chinese regime’s involvement in the global Microsoft Exchange server hack and Russia’s “destructive” cyber activity towards Ukraine.
National Security During Election Year
In response to a question by Deputy Leader of the National Party, Nicola Willis, McKee said there was a global theme of “anti-authority” playing out, which underpinned threats of violence and online hate. Parliamentarians and ministers are prime targets for such sentiment.
Noting his comments, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said politicians would need to have their “eyes wide open” while campaigning ahead of the next general election, to be held on Oct. 14.
“There are a group of New Zealanders who are more polarised now in their political views and are expressing those views in a more inflammatory way than we might have seen in the past,” he told reporters. “Social media has a role there.”
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins speaks to the media during a post-cabinet press conference at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, on Jan. 25, 2023. (Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
Hampton said his agency had advised government agencies to make informed decisions around technology services, with advice on social media to come out shortly.
“[The advice] is still neutral in terms of particular countries or particular products,” he added.
TikTok Banned From Government Devices
On March 17, New Zealand’s Parliamentary Service Chief Executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said that TikTok—owned by Beijing-based firm ByteDance—would be removed from “all devices with access to the parliamentary network.”
“This decision has been made based on our own experts’ analysis and following discussion with our colleagues across government and internationally,” he said.
“Based on this information, the [Parliamentary Service] has determined that the risks are not acceptable in the current New Zealand Parliamentary environment.”
It follows similar actions by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
Australian-based cybersecurity firm Internet 2.0 outlined in a new report that the app tracked the location of users every hour, accessed calendars and contacts, and also conducted “device mapping”—tracking what other apps were installed on a person’s phone.
“TikTok has access to contacts, and if the user denies access, it continuously requests for access until the user gives access,” the report stated.
“The application retrieves all other running applications on the phone. TikTok also gathers all applications that are installed on the phone. In theory, this information can provide a realistic diagram of your phone.”
Tom Kenyon, director at Internet 2.0, said TikTok harvested “more data than just about any other social media app.”
Aldgra Fredly and Daniel Y. Teng contributed to this report.
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