InternetNZ tackles increased cyberattacks with new partnership

InternetNZ has partnered with Medical IT Advisors in a bid to combat increased cyberattacks due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Medical IT Advisors' Health Threat Intelligence feed is now integrated with the InternetNZ security product, Defenz DNS Firewall.

Medical IT Advisors (MITA) is a Kiwi cybersecurity service provider trusted by many NZ health organisations, and their NZ Health Threat Intelligence Sharing Platform is a community-based initiative to develop and use local threat intelligence.
Defenz DNS Firewall protects Internet users from phishing attacks, malware, ransomware and botnets helping businesses to manage online security risks. The new feed will be available as an option for all Defenz users.

InternetNZ's commercial director, David Morrison, says the partnership with MITA is important to make sure Defenz users are protected from increasing cyberattacks due to COVID-19.

"We have seen health sector customers onboarding with Defenz see immediate value from this new threat feed with online threats being blocked," says Morrison.

"We want to arm our customers with the best possible defence against known threats on the Internet," he says.

The partnership with InternetNZ will see MITA taking the lead in adoption of the DNS Firewall in the NZ Health Sector through the CyberShield.NZ managed security service that includes onboarding, support, incident response and access to advanced security services.

Medical IT Advisors' director, Faustin Roman adds, "We are excited to work with InternetNZ to ensure any NZ health organisation, from GPs to NGOs and DHBs, have access to very simple yet effective cybersecurity protection.

"We strongly believe in "sharing is caring" and this service will protect both individual organisations and also increase the community immunity and resilience to threats targeting NZ health detected daily by our security operations," he explains.

Defenz already draws on an international cyberthreat feed curated by Akamai which analyses global DNS traffic. The feed is updated in real time, taking roughly five minutes from detection to blocking.

Earlier this year, Defenz DNS Firewall was integrated with CERT NZ's local threat feed as part of InternetNZ's commitment to keep adding intelligence to make sure Defenz users are protected from known security threats.

"The strongest defence is a layered approach to security, says Morrison.

"No single cybersecurity product is 100% effective by itself but the more layers you can offer your customers the stronger their security will be."
Defenz Domain Name System (DNS) Firewall or CyberShield are available for a free four month trial that can be requested through InternetNZ or MITA.