Published on the 09/03/2026 | Written by Newsdesk
AppWrap aims to help you keep up to date with an easy to read collection of news and snippets published by other leading tech media publications that we trust. AppWrap March 2026 11.03 US medtech giant Stryker has been hit by a major cyberattack, wit
AppWrap aims to help you keep up to date with an easy to read collection of news and snippets published by other leading tech media publications that we trust.
AppWrap March 2026
11.03 US medtech giant Stryker has been hit by a major cyberattack, with an Iran-linked hacking group claiming responsibility, saying it is in retaliation for the killing of more than 170 people – mainly schoolgirls – in a strike on a school, and warning it marks the beginning of a new chapter in cyber warfare, Al Jazeera reports. The group says it has seized 50TB of Stryker data in the attack which it says has erased data from 200,000 devices.
10.03 Anthropic is opening a Sydney office as it expands its presence in Australia and New Zealand. The company says New Zealand ranks 8th globally in Claude.ai usage, relative to population, with strong demand from local business. Anthropic says it is also exploring opportunities to expand compute capacity in Australia ‘given our longstanding belief that democracies should lead in AI development’. The company is currently suing the US government over its claims that Anthropic is a ‘supply chain risk’. The row erupted after Anthropic refused to all US military to have unfettered use to its AI tools.
07.03 Bunnings will begin using facial recognition technology in two Hamilton stores from mid-April, with a nationwide rollout to follow. The remainder of the North Island will be covered in phase two, with the South Island rollout coming in phase three, with timings yet to be confirmed, Bunnings says. The company says the system will help protect staff and customers from increasing threatening incidents.
05.03 The GCSB has warned government that cyber security around some of New Zealand’s critical infrastructure is ‘barely meeting that foundational level we would expect’. RNZ reports that GCSB director-general Andrew Clark told a select committee that supply chains, including digital ones from private companies into public agencies, were increasingly a weak point and they had to make sure private ones are hardened up like public ones.
04.03 Recruitment company Younity is reporting an 80 percent jump in open IT roles year-on-year in January, continuing a trend seen in December. It says demand is being driven largely by business transformation roles such as business analysis, project management and delivery focused positions, however, demand is healthy across critical IT disciplines including software development, data engineering and analytics, cloud computing and cybersecurity.
02.03 Andrew Bridgman has been appointed establishment chief executive of the New Zealand Institute for Advanced Technology. MBIE says he will oversee the critical foundation phase, putting in place governance, operational capability and systems required to deliver on NZIAT’s mission of ensuring advanced tech delivers meaningful, measurable benefits for New Zealanders.
02.03 Syos Aerospace has won a contract to supply drones to the New Zealand Defence force. Air, land and sea drones will be delivered as part of the deal, Syos says.
01.03 Kiwi managed services company Securecom has been acquired by the New Zeaand subsidiary of Japan’s Sharp. Shap says there will be no structural or operational changes, for the Auckland-headquartered operations and 24/7 integrated operations centre, which will continue under the leadership of Greg Mikkelsen. The deal provides Sharp with an IT services business as it moves from being a traditional print and copier business to ‘a more unified tech partner’, Sharp says.
AppWrap February 2026
27.02 The government has released New Zealand’s Cyber Security Strategy 2026-2030 and an accompanying action plan, providing a national framework for responding to cyber threats and strengthening cyber security practices. The strategy is focused around four objectives of understand, prevent and prepare, respond and partner, while the action plan translates the objectives into specific initiatives including strengthening critical infrastructure cyber resilience and quantum readiness.
26.02 Tauranga robotics company Syos Aerospace’s uncrewed autonomous helicopter has completed a series of fully autonomous mission trials clearing the uncrewed aerial vehicle for serial production, the company says.
26.02 Nvidia has posted blockbuster quarterly results of US$68.1 billion – up 73 percent year on year and well above analysts’ forecasts. Revenue from the data centre division, which sells the chips used to train and run AI models was up 75 percent yoy to $62.3 billion, the company says.
25.02 MediMap is seeking an urgent injunction to stop any sharing of stolen data after sensitive patient data was distributed to media outlets. The injunction being sought would prohibit anyone from accessing, using, copying, sharing or publishing any MediMap data that may have been unlawfully obtained and would seek to limit further spread of the information online, Stuff reports.
24.02 Pharmacists have implemented manual systems after medication management platform MediMap was hacked on Sunday. Records for some patients have been altered, including labelling some live patients as deceased, and changing names. Patient data for over 120,000 users was put at risk by the hack, the NZ Herald reports.
23.02 New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner has joined other countries in signing a joint statement voicing concerns about use of AI-generated imagery, and reiterating expectations for organisations developing and using AI content generation to ensure systems are developed and used in accordance with legal frameworks, including data protection and privacy rules.
20.02 Fintech Dosh’s bid to become a bank has been turned down by the Reserve Bank, which says it does not meet the legal definition of a bank. Dosh told a Parliamentary banking inquiry follow-up that the Reserve Bank says it must make loans as well as offering other banking services to be deemed a bank – something Dosh says is a restrictive and narrow interpretation of the legislation, GoodReturns reports.
18.02 Xero is restructuring with 250 jobs on the line – including in New Zealand. The company is creating around 280 roles in Canada as part of the restructure, BusinessDesk reports [paywalled].
18.02 YouTube suffered an outage from around 1.50pm NZT, with a spokesperson for Google saying an issue with the recommendations system prevented videos appearing.
18.02 Spark has reported an 83 percent rise in net profit after tax, to $64m, for the first half of FY26. Revenue was down 1.2 percent to $1.8 billion in the interim results for the six months to December. It says use of agentic AI is reducing set up time by around 60 percent on some business products with AI now identifying customers with more complex needs so they can be escalated to the care team for faster resolution.
17.02 Mastercard has completed its first Agent Pay – agentic – transactions in New Zealand, with Mastercard’s country manager using a bot to purchase cinema tickets, then booking Queenstown accommodation. Stuff reports Mastercard plans to launch the offering fully in New Zealand within six to nine months. It has currently launched in the US and is in pilot in Australia, the UAE and Latin America.
16.02 Labour says it supports the principle of long-term investment in digital health, but wants more detail before committing to supporting the Government’s 10-year Health Digital Investment Plan. Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says she wants more detail about how the plan will invest in cybersecurity, eHealthNews reports.
16.02 An American computer scientist is heading to New Zealand’s Court of Appeal next week to test whether AI really can be an inventor. In the global test case, Stephen Thaler is challenging the Patent Office’s declining of an application for a patent for a new type of food container he says was named by an AI system, RNZ reports. The Patent Office and High Court say an inventor has to be human.
16.02 The Department of Corrections has warned staff about use of AI tools outside approved use, after some staff were found using it to draft formal reports. RNZ reports Corrections’ policy for Microsoft Copilot – the only AI used by the agency – is that Chat must not be used under any circumstances for reports or assessments containing personal information, but in a ‘small number of incidents’ inappropriate use has occurred.
13.02 Kiwi Chris Liddell has been appointed to the Anthropic board of directors. CNBC reports the appointment, which comes as Anthropic announces it closed a US$30 billion funding round at a US$380 billion post-money valuation, could help the company foster some goodwill with the Trump administration which has accused Anthropic of supporting ‘woke AI’. Liddell was deputy White House chief of staff during Trump’s first term.
11.02 Christchurch start-up Contented AI, which turns meeting notes into documents, has raised $4.1m in a seed funding round. The company says it will use the funding to scale into Australia and the UK, triple its team, invest in core technology and build out new integrations and templates. The funding round was led by Altered Capital, with backing from K1W1, Icehouse Ventures, Aspire NZ Seed Fund and others.
11.02 Wellington medtech Wellumio has raised $7.28 million in a pre-Series A funding round. The company is developing a portal AI-enhanced brain scan technology designed to rapidly detect acute stroke and unlock treatment within the ‘golden hour’, Voice of Healthcare reports. The funding will be used to build the team and accelerate clinical development.
09.02 New Zealand is adopting 57 digital technology international standards as part of a trans-Tasman standards agreement. The agreement aims to align standards and adopt trusted international rules across areas including AI, data management and cybersecurity. Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson says the agreement will also strengthen digital trade, and reduce fees and red tape. The national standards bodies on both sides of the Tasman will also support 33 additional joint A/NZ standards projects to progress in fields including telecommunications, while 24 standards across areas including building and construction and consumer protection will be ‘re-aligned’.
09.02 Computer simulations, based on climate models, are being used to predict future ocean temperatures and currents – and future marine heatwaves and ocean-driven weather patterns – in an $8.9m project examining how offshore ocean changes are driving extreme weather in New Zealand and impacting coastal waters. The five-year project will see self-driven ocean gliders mapping the ‘heatscape’ along New Zealand’s coastline University of Auckland says.
09.02 Early-stage investment in start-up businesses attracted 8.6 percent more capital, with nearly twice as many new businesses receiving investment in last year, according to Angel Association. RNZ reports deal activity rebounded with a 34 percent increase in the number of deals completed, to 167, but the capital increase was a more conservative 2.7 percent, to $13.9m.
04.02 The Warehouse Group is cutting 270 head office roles and upping its ‘co-sourcing’ with Tata Consultancy Services as part of a push for a ‘leaner operating structure’. TCS will support delivery of corporate and admin functions, including parts of technology, accounting, call centres and payroll, TWG says. Last year the company announced it was using TCS to simplify its tech stack and lower costs, saying the partnership would reduce licensing and managed services costs by up to $40m over five years and free tech teams to focus on delivering more value for customers, communities and shareholders.
03.02 Kiwi software quality consultancy Assurity Consulting has been acquired by global technology services firm Aspire Systems. Assurity says the deal will provide global scale and deep technical capability, unlocking a pipeline of AI tools for New Zealand and Australian clients.
03.02 A new ‘digital medical assistant’, aka chatbot, to provide pre-and post-surgical advice is being rolled out to some New Zealand and US clinics. The AI agent, developed by Fios Health and operating via SMS, is customised to each surgeon’s protocols and proactively sends information and answers patient questions. Early trials showed some patients felt more comfortable directing certain questions to an AI assistant rather than their surgeon, Fios says.
03.02 Xero says more than two million subscribers are using its full AI features, with more than 300,000 using its newer GenAI features. In a market update today the company claimed customers are saving around 22 hours a month using bank feeds and automated actions, with more than 12 percent using AI Insights.
03.02 Kiwi AI startup Teacher’s Buddy has raised $2.3m in trans-Tasman seed funding. The offering aims to reduce teacher workloads, helping with marking and student report writing and producing customised, differentiated curriculum-aligned teaching and assessment materials The company says the funding was led by Auckland’s Soul Capital and Australia’s Giant Leap.
03.02 2degrees has completed the shutdown of its 3G services with finals shutdown completed last night. The telco says the shutdown enables it to focus on strengthening and expanding its 4G and 5G networks which already carry the vast majority of mobile traffic, while also looking to satellite.
AppWrap January 2026
31.01 Spectral Defence has been crowned the national winner of the ActInSpace New Zealand 2026 hackathon and will represent New Zealand at the international ActInSpace finals in France in April. The event sees teams tackle space-related challenges, applying satellite data, earth observation and space-enabled technologies to problems spanning sustainability, infrastructure, resilience and ‘everyday life applications’, SpaceBase, who delivered the NZ event, says.
30.01 The NZ government has launched its Public Service AI Work Program designed to accelerate the safe and responsible adoption of AI across government agencies. The two-year ‘action plan’ is designed to connect agencies’ efforts with the resources, guidance and support needed to accelerate AI adoption, while modelling best practice, Digital.govt.nz says. The program includes an AI marketplace, an AI hub with registries and tools, a dedicated AI Innovation and Accelerator Lab and a public service AI Sandbox.
30.01 Thirty-eight percent of Kiwis received unwanted digital communication in the last 12 months, with 14 percent reporting the experience negatively impacted their life, Netsafe reports. Ten percent admitted having sent or shared at least one form of unwanted communication themselves in the past year.
29.01 A system error with the Ministry of Social Development’s IT system resulted in around 200 pensioners who get overseas pensions receiving incorrect NZ Super payments. RNZ reports the ministry is working ‘urgently’ to fix the fault in the IT system which updates overseas pension rates.
29.01 Hospital administration systems across the top half of the North Island shut down for 12 hours in a major IT failure affecting clinical and operational systems. All emergency department, laboratory and inpatient systems were affected with clinicians resorting to paper-based systems, whiteboards and phones, Stuff reports.
27.01 Nema is warning people about AI images circulating on TikTok claiming to capture the fallout of the Mt Maunganui slip. The scenes depict exaggerated scenes of destruction including a raging waterfall and emergency workers digging through wreckage. A Victoria University senior lecturer says he believes it is the first time AI images of a New Zealand disaster have circulated online, RNZ reports.
26.01 Client data has been breached in a cyberattack on Napier law firm Langley Twigg Law. The company says security monitoring software alerted to unauthorised activity on the network on 11 January, after the network was targeted by ‘a sophisticated malicious attack using a new strain of virus’ not recognised by antivirus programs at the time. Client data has been copied from the file server, the company says.
27.01 Airwallex boss Jack Zhang says the fintech is at least two years away from a public listing, despite regular references to an IPO in 2026. Zhang’s comments, reported in StartupDaily, follow news last week that Austrac has ordered an audit of the company over AML/CTF concerns.
26.01 A digital twin simulating New Zealand’s entire population, has been used to study resilience to measles. eHealthnews reports the digital twin creates ‘virtual kiwis’ built from aggregated census and government data, enabling researchers to model public health scenarios to inform public policy decision and emergency planning, without tracking real people.
23.01 Manage My Health has warned that secondary actors may be impersonating the company and sending spam or phishing emails in the wake of the high profile hack of the online patient portal. The company says it has been granted an interim injunction from the High Court to prevent access, dissemination or publication of the impacted data by any third parties and says it is monitoring data leak websites and ready to issue takedown notices.
23.01 TikTok has finalised agreements with backers including Oracle, Silver Lake and Emirati company MGX to establish a US joint venture. Each of the three backers will hold a 15 percent stake in the company. ByteDance keeps a 19.9 percent share. The BBC reports the content recommendation algorithm has been licensed to Oracle – headed by Trump ally Larry Ellison – which already oversees US user data under a previous arrangement set up over security concerns. The deal will enable TikTok to continue operating in the US, but is likely to continue to be scrutinised, with some Democrats voicing concerns about the ties between Trump and TikTok’s new investor group could limit what gets shared on the platform.
22.01 Australia’s financial intelligence unit, Austrac has ordered an external auditor be appointed to assess whether fintech – and unicorn – Airwallex is complying with anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing. Austrac says it has ‘concerns’ about potential non-compliance including that Airwallex’s transaction monitoring program has not been ‘attuned to the full range of risks it faces’ and the company hasn’t demonstrated an acceptable understanding of who its customers are and what reporting may be required. The auditor must report findings within 180 days of appointment.
22.01 Hamilton’s Cloudland has acquired professional services tech provider CommArc for an undisclosed sum, in its fourth acquisition in as many years.
20.01 Kiwi legal tech startup Ivo has raised US$55m in a Series B funding round led by existing investor Blackbird. The company’s platform helps in-house legal teams review contracts. Ivo says customers include Uber, Shopify, Canva, Atlassian, Reddit and Pinterest, and the capital will support product development and scaling the company.
15.01 Kiwi email signature provider Crossware has bought Germany’s largest email signature provider, CI Solutions, in a multimillion-dollar deal. Crossware says the deal significantly scales its presence in the European union and establishes it as one of the leading email signature providers globally, processing more than five million emails every day.
13.01 Advertising is hitting the AI chatbots with ads starting to show up in Google’s ‘AI Mode’ in what the Washington Post says is likely to be just the beginning of more trial-and-error attempts this year. Google has been pushing a new type of ad in AI Mode to advertisers, OpenAI has also been looking at introducing advertising in ChatGPT and Perplexity attempted ads but pulled back last year – but has left the doors open to try again.
11.01 Around 70 percent of those impacted by the ManageMyHealth breach are based in Northland. Ransomware group Kazu has demanded US$60,000 after stealing hundreds of thousands of medical files. RNZ reports around 120,000 patients have had data stolen, with 80,000 of those based in Northland.
01.01 ManageMyHealth has been hacked, with ‘six to seven per cent’ of its approximately 1.8 million registered users potentially affected. The company says it has begun to identify users affected and will start notifying them within the next 48 hours.
