Cyber Smart Week 5-11 October

28 September 2026

2026 Cyber Smart Week is an annual nationwide event designed to help organisations build stronger cyber security habits across their workforce.

This year's campaign is in response to the speed at which AI is advancing cybercrime. It offers simple cyber smart habits to protect ourselves, our information, and our workplace.

AI isn’t just transforming the way we work, it’s transforming cybercrime. It’s helping cybercriminals create more convincing scams, operate at greater scale, and find and exploit vulnerabilities faster than ever before. There's less time to spot, respond to and stop an attack. Organisations need to understand the exponential shift in threat and be prepared. The good news? There are simple things we can all do to make ourselves much harder to attack.

Our people are our strongest line of defence. The consequences of cyber incidents go well beyond IT. While organisations continue to invest in technology, every person has a role to play, making decisions every day that can either reduce or increase risk. Creating a culture where people know what to do is one of the most effective ways to strengthen our cyber resilience. This is where Cyber Smart Week comes in.

As cyber-attacks get smarter and faster, some of the most effective things we can do are surprisingly simple. This Cyber Smart Week, we're focusing on five key actions:

• Lock it down: Protect your accounts
• Don't take the bait: Think before you click
• Keep it to yourself: Protect your information
• Keep it current: Make sure your devices are updated
• Protect home base: Secure your home network

Taking part in Cyber Smart Week won't just help strengthen your organisation's cyber security, it will help keep you safe at home too.

 Visit www.ownyouronline.govt.nz/business and scroll down to register for Cyber Smart Week.