MinterEllisonRuddWatts is the latest New Zealand business to shine the light on New Zealand's vulnerability to cyber attacks, citing results from its own surveys, the PwC New Zealand CEO Survey and CERT NZ's recently Quarterly Report.

The company says that 91% of CEOs are concerned about cyber attacks according to PwC's study, while a MinterEllisonRuddWatts poll at its Corporate Governance Symposium found that less than 30% of directors and executives were prepared for an attack.

The company notes that the government invested $22.2 million to set up the national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT). Recently CERT released its first Quarterly Report, which showed that in just three months, there were 364 reported incidents and local businesses had lost more than $730,000.

According to MinterEllisonRuddWatts, the CERT report also showed that many of the cyber attacks on New Zealand businesses come from successful phishing attempts.

“A significant issue highlighted by the report is that 33.6 per cent of the incidents reported related to phishing. This is a global trend as one of the easiest routes for hackers is through e-mails. This means if your staff aren't vigilant and don't know what a phishing email might look like, your business and its operating systems are at real risk,” the company says in a statement.

It has also put together a list of tips for encouraging and educating staff about threats.

1) Ensure passwords are updated frequently - A crucial step is to update passwords regularly. Every 2 months is a good benchmark. It's also important to ensure passwords are strong and unique. For example, if your password is as simple as "ABCDE" or the standard "Password" it amazingly takes a hacker around 0.29 milliseconds to uncover it. A good tip is to see how good your current password is using free online tools.

2) Regular back-ups - In larger organisations, this will be something the IT department carries out. For smaller businesses or sole traders, you may have to do this yourself. While back-ups in the cloud are great, it also pays to back up key documents on removable hard-drives. After all, if your passwords are compromised it is likely hackers will get into your cloud back-ups too.

3) Remind staff not to ignore system updates - Make it your company policy that however inconvenient it might be, when operating system updates appear, install them straight away. The major software companies such as Microsoft are doing what they can to send patches to fix the weak points in their systems that cyber criminals are exploiting. So if you keep your systems up to date, you are at least making it harder for criminals.

4) Educate staff to be careful of suspicious links - If your staff receive an e-mail or link they were not expecting, then they need to be vigilant and report it, rather than click on it. However, this can be hard to spot which is why they need help and guidance.

5) Support staff with regular training - There is a great deal of confusion around what is a system threat and what isn't. A simple yet efficient option, training can even be done annually online. This will help your staff to keep your systems safe particularly from threats such as scams and phishing.

6) Share stories of cyber-attacks - If you have a company newsletter or briefings then have an item which shares a recent incident you've had or one that has been in the press. This helps to keep it top of mind for everyone and reinforce what your staff need to be on the lookout for.