Move FM Australian News

WELLINGTON, New Zealand: In its annual report that covers the year ending June 2022, New Zealand Security Intelligence Service says attempts by some countries to interfere with New Zealand’s democracy, economy, and civil society “are persistent.”

There are increasingly aggressive activities from individuals conducting intelligence and associated with a “small number of foreign states,” added the report, which was released last week.

“These individuals pose an enduring threat to New Zealand’s national security,” the agency added in the report.

The intelligence agency said it had investigated “New Zealand-based people cultivating locals for intelligence purposes, collecting intelligence against the government, targeting New Zealanders with access to sensitive information, and interfering in the country’s politics, private sector, and civil society.”

“For some states, these activities are enduring and persistent,” it added.

New Zealand cannot take regional Pacific security for granted because it has become an important theatre of geopolitical competition, the report warned.

New Zealand recently criticized Russia for its malicious cyber activity against Ukraine in 2022 and China for its involvement in a global hacking spree in 2021.