Published on the 11/03/2015 | Written by Clare Coulson

Andy Prow, CEO of Aura, the New Zealand-born IT security specialist that has government departments and big-name corporates on its books both here and abroad and is opening US offices later this year, says New Zealand has a “huge opportunity” to lead the world in cyber security but instead is falling behind the times.

As little as three years ago organisations around the world didn’t worry greatly about security, he says. Events such as the NSA leaks and Sony hacks have heightened global awareness of security risks and the era of the internet-of-things has only increased the need for data protection. But in New Zealand Prow says it is still possible to be perfectly successful company in New Zealand and not look after your data at all – the ones who are doing a good job of looking after their data are the ones that are looking at the international market, he says.

Gartner forecasts that 4.9 billion connected things will be in use in 2015, up 30 percent from last year, and that this will reach 25 billion by 2020. “This sudden expansion will boost the economic impact of the IoT as consumers, businesses, city authorities, hospitals and many other entities find new ways in which to exploit the technology,” the research firm says.

Forces of good (or at least malign) are not the only ones who will exploit the IoT however. The rapid proliferation of connected devices across the network has expanded the potential attack surface, making people and organisations more vulnerable to attack and exploitation by wrong-doers.

“The internet of things changes the security profile massively,” says Prow. As your house, car and front door ‘key’ all become linked to your phone, the effects of a hack become more than just an inconvenience, he says. Today you can even get baby-grows that have sensors to monitor your baby’s breathing and prevent cot death. “Now the ‘thing’ at the end of what is being targeted by a hack is your baby. The impact of hacking is suddenly more real.”

Gartner anticipates that 40 percent of large enterprises will have put formal plans in place to deal with the chance of IoT-related attacks by 2018, but Prow thinks there is a bigger opportunity for New Zealand. In order to grow our successful technology industry further and gain international scale, businesses need to more of a focus on data protection.

“New Zealand is a really trusted country. We have been on the global anti-corruption index at number one for the last fourteen or fifteen years, so we are a highly trusted, but our IT security industry is not world-leading. If we could put the two together we could make New Zealand an uber-trusted hub of the world where we lead the world in IT security,” he says.

A ‘Trust NZ’ brand could be really good for the over-all New Zealand Inc. brand, but would require the backing of Government. The New Zealand Internet Task Force (a mix of government, private and public organisatons that exists to respond to cyber threats against New Zealand) in which Prow has been involved, has had a ‘Trust NZ’ working group in the past but at the time did not find the support it needed. Now that security is becoming more of an end-user consideration and is on the enterprise and Government radar, however, perhaps a similar initiative could find backing.