New Zealand’s National Cyber Security Centre has launched its 2026 Cyber Smart Week campaign with a particular warning about the role artificial intelligence is playing in scams. AI-generated content is making fraudulent messages and approaches more convincing, increasing the importance of basic verification.
The campaign focuses on practical measures rather than sophisticated security technology. For organisations, the NCSC is emphasising backups, multi-factor authentication, incident planning and helping staff recognise suspicious activity.
Key facts
- Cyber Smart Week runs from 5 to 11 October.
- The campaign theme is recognising scams before becoming a victim.
- NCSC says AI is helping make scams more convincing and difficult to identify.
- Its research indicates new AI tools are increasing New Zealanders’ concern about cyber attacks.
- Organisations are being encouraged to maintain backups, use MFA and have an incident response plan.
- The campaign provides free resources for New Zealand organisations.
Our take
Generative AI changes the economics of social engineering. Attackers can produce more convincing emails, messages, voices and other content at much greater scale, so organisations cannot rely on staff simply spotting poor spelling or obviously suspicious messages.
For New Zealand businesses, this makes verification processes increasingly important. Requests involving payments, credentials, sensitive information or unusual access should have a second method of confirmation that does not depend solely on whether a message looks authentic.
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