A review of all public systems operated by the government has been ordered

Oct 16, 2012 10:52 GMT  ·  By

As it turns out, the New Zealand Work and Income agency has been aware of the security issues that plague its Internet kiosks since April 2011.

According to the NZ Herald, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett has revealed that IT company Dimension Data notified the agency that its internal networks could be accessed from the kiosks over a year ago, but nothing has been done to remediate the issue.

State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie has asked Chief Information Officer Colin McDonald to perform an urgent review of all computer systems operated by government agencies.

McDonald’s task is to ensure that all agencies have robust computer systems.

“Mr McDonald will lead public service agencies in evaluating and strengthening their ICT security measures to ensure that there are no systemic faults that could cause additional security issues,” Rennie explained.

The security breach was first reported by Kiwi journalist Keith Ng who was tipped off by IT analyst and former activist Ira Bailey.