- Posted August 17, 2023
- Media Releases
The GCSB's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has been awarded the Public Service Commission’s Spirit of Service – Te Tohu mō te Ratonga Whakahirahire, Service Excellence Award, and the overall Prime Minister’s Award for its collaboration with industry partners to strengthen New Zealand’s cyber defence capabilities.
The awards were announced at a function in Wellington last night.
Malware Free Networks® (MFN®)(external link), a cyber defence capability developed by the Government Communications Security Bureau’s (GCSB) National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), provides near real-time threat intelligence to industry partners, who then use it to protect their customers’ networks.
The MFN threat intelligence service can be integrated with other systems and platforms to increase the range of malicious activity MFN customers are defended against. MFN brings these cyber security capabilities to a large number of nationally significant New Zealand organisations.
Lisa Fong, NCSC Deputy Director-General, says receiving these awards recognised NCSC’s ongoing efforts in collaboration and partnership between government and the private sector to increase New Zealand’s cyber security resilience.
“We are really proud of what we have been able to achieve with MFN - connecting the private and public sectors to scale our cyber defence impact.
“Being acknowledged amongst the other finalists last night was a testament to our work having real-world impact every day, for New Zealanders.
“Through our MFN partners we are able to take cyber threat information from a range of sources, including the operation of our own capabilities, and from our international partners, and use it to help defend New Zealand organisations.
“We recognise the private sector is key in our mission towards a cyber-resilient New Zealand. By providing them with high-quality cyber threat information that they can readily use to help protect their customers, in tandem with other commercial products, makes a real difference in the long term.
“When we launched MFN, we knew this would be a real change for New Zealand’s cyber security posture, and our ability to have impact at scale and speed would grow enormously,” Ms Fong said.
Since then, MFN has disrupted nearly one million cyber threats.
“We now have 14 MFN partners offering the service and are working with a range of other providers to enable them to incorporate MFN into their product offerings,” she said.
Ms Fong says the NCSC is excited about the opportunity to further scale its impact through the integration with New Zealand’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT NZ).
“Our rapid, reliable, and real-world impact will only expand with the development of our lead cyber security agency for New Zealand,” Ms Fong said.
The Spirit of Service – Te Tohu mō te Ratonga Whakahirahire, Service Excellence Award celebrates the leading-edge service improvements that are making a real difference to the lives of New Zealanders.
The judges acknowledged the NCSC’s innovation and its commitment to continuous improvement of services and sharing data through world-leading sector partnerships.
They noted that the NCSC is a group of unsung heroes, working tirelessly behind the scenes to protect New Zealanders and the systems New Zealand relies on.
The criteria for the award included the achievement of significantly improved services for the people we serve, agility in responding to the demands of diverse and changing communities, innovation in areas such as the use of data and digital technology or approaches to community engagement, and a collaborative approach to working across the public sector.
Read more information about Malware Free Networks(external link)
Media contact: media@nzic.govt.nz
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