New Zealand’s stock exchange suffered a fourth day of disruption on Friday as cyberattacks from abroad prevented trading.
The 204 billion New Zealand dollar ($135 billion) market, which is nearing a record high, has been the target of distributed-denial-of-service attacks that have overwhelmed its website and forced trading halts since Tuesday. The exchange failed to open at 10 a.m. despite assurances from operator NZX that it would. Trading finally began three hours later at 1 p.m.
New Zealand authorities haven’t commented on the suspected source of the attacks, which flood a network with Internet traffic and disrupt services, other than saying they originate from offshore. Security intelligence company Akamai warned earlier this week that extortionists claiming to be the Russian-linked hacking group Fancy Bear have recently been sending ransom letters to companies in finance, travel and e-commerce in the Asia Pacific, U.S. and U.K. demanding payments to stop attacks.