News and Views

In part 1 of our Data Privacy Day blog, we discussed the state of cybersecurity in New Zealand (as you do) and the critical importance of data governance. You can catch up on the whys and wherefores of data governance as it applies to you here . Moving on, this time, we’re focusing on the 13 Information Privacy Principles in our Privacy Act (2020) and what you need to do to stay on the good side of our legislation – and your customers. But first, this is why you should care.

Data Privacy Day has been internationally observed on 28 January since 2007. Its purpose is to raise awareness and promote best privacy and data protection practices. It serves as an excellent reminder of exactly how precious our data is, as well as our ethical and legal obligations as businesses to securely manage and protect it. So, in terms of data privacy, how have we fared here in New Zealand? Why is data governance so important - what is it, and why exactly do you need it? Warning – triggering content: It may not be your job to manage data – and you may not think you even need to care about it. But if you are a stakeholder, it’s your responsibility to make sure that your business complies with New Zealand’s privacy and data protection best practices.  This is a big topic (sorry!), so it’s in two parts.

Manawatu Toyota are an award-winning Toyota dealership with seven locations across New Zealand and a team of around 160 staff. The business has grown rapidly over the past 20 years, starting with Manawatu Toyota in Palmerston North before acquiring dealerships in Feilding, Levin, Masterton and Whanganui, as well as Tractor Repair Company (TRC).

New Zealand’s first hyperscale data centre is set to open in 2024, marking a major milestone in the country’s digital landscape. First announced in 2020, this ambitious project once seemed like a distant vision. Now, it’s becoming a reality, connecting New Zealand to a global network of over 200 data centres, 190 points of presence, and 175,000 miles of terrestrial and subsea fibre. This expansion will offer significant advantages for local businesses, enhancing connectivity and opening up new opportunities. A local data centre can significantly improve data security and compliance, enabling businesses to meet local data residency requirements and adhere to the new Privacy Act. This is especially important for companies that handle sensitive customer information. Additionally, Microsoft’s new cloud services align with the growing emphasis on Māori data sovereignty. The data centre ensures that data remains within Aotearoa New Zealand’s borders, which is a crucial step in protecting Māori knowledge, culture, and data from foreign jurisdiction or governance. It will also provide access to Microsoft’s cloud services, including Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365, offering scalable, highly available, and resilient solutions that can enhance business operations. Local data storage means reduced latency and faster access to data, leading to improved performance and reliability. This hyperscale data centre is more than just an infrastructure upgrade—Microsoft’s local presence will unlock new opportunities for innovation and growth, shaping the future of New Zealand’s digital economy.  While the transition from Australia to a local data centre may not happen overnight for all businesses, it's a development worth considering. If you’d like to learn more or have any questions, feel free to reach out.

Yorb is aware of a multi-stage phishing campaign currently impacting New Zealand organisations. Compromised email accounts are being used by attackers to send phishing emails. This makes it look like it originates from trusted or known contacts . These phishing emails are being sent via Microsoft sharing invitations. The attacker gains access to a compromised email account, uploads a malicious file to their Microsoft OneDrive/SharePoint , and shares this out to the all the compromised accounts contacts. What to look for: This email is from a known contact or vendor you may deal with every now and again The email contains a legitimate OneDrive share , which leads to a fake document. See below example

October 2025 still feels like a long way off, but with 70% of devices still running Windows 10, there is a lot of work for IT teams before that time to ensure devices are safely upgraded to Windows 11. Microsoft gives a predictable support period for all the software, five years of mainstream support, followed by five years of extended support. During the extended support phase, Microsoft continues to provide security updates to their products. Windows 10 was released in July 2015, and Microsoft will cease to provide security updates in October next year. Windows 11 was released in 2021 and over that time has matured to be a reliable solution that retains a similar look and feel. Furthermore, Windows 11 will run all the same software as Windows 10. The vast majority of hardware released in the past five years is also supported, though there are a few exceptions where some of the new security requirements cannot be met. To ensure all your systems continue to be supported past October next year, we strongly suggest clients start planning their upgrades now to avoid the late rush. Yorb is providing free upgrade assessments that will identify any potential upgrade issues and provide a roadmap to October 2025, please contact us to arrange your assessment.

It's cliche that we all believe this year is racing by faster than the last, though it certainly feels like it again, already we are talking about our end of year function, staff leave approvals, and most importantly our annual Christmas donation. Each year, in lieu of Christmas gifts to clients we have made donations to charities, past years have been: 2023 - $9,000 to Salvation Army Food Bank 2022 - $9,000 to Salvation Army Food Bank 2021 - $6,000 to Womans Refuge 2020 - $6,000 to Salvation Army Food Bank This year we've been polling our staff on who they feel we should support in 2024; they've whittled them down to these very worthwhile causes: Womans Refuge (Whanganui, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, West Coast) SPCA (Whanganui, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, West Coast) Big Brothers Big Sisters (Manawatu, Hawkes Bay, West Coast) Good Bitches Baking (Whanganui, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu) Wildbase Recovery Trust (Manawatu) Hato Hone St John (Whanganui, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, West Coast) Life Education Trust (Whanganui, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, West Coast) Manchester House Feilding (Manawatu) Just Zilch (Manawatu) Arohanui Hospice (Manawatu) Family Start West Coast (West Coast) Nourished for Nill (Hawkes Bay) Napier Riding for the Disabled (Hawkes Bay) Sustainable Whanganui Trust (Whanganui) Bushy Park (Whanganui) We would like our clients to help us select our 2024 recipient(s) by voting on these nominees. Please visit the Yorb Christmas donation page and vote before 30 November. Every person that votes will go in the draw to win a Christmas Hamper. In August I attended IT Nation in Sydney, this is a bi-annual event and one of the largest events in the IT calendar. This year, as you can imagine, the focus was heavily on AI and how it will impact business over the remainder of the 2020s. Chat-GPT, Gemini from Google and Co-Pilot from Microsoft have received the vast majority of headlines over the past year, though there is also a lot of very important with industry apps such as Financial, CRM, and ERP tools. Within our own ConnectWise job management solution, we are seeing AI begin to classify tickets as they are created, analyse sentiment and assess urgency. It's worth looking at your own line-of-business apps and understanding from the vendors how they are looking to bring AI into their solutions. Lastly, did you know Yorb has a Software Development team? No? I suspect you are not alone, our Software team is in my view our best kept secret. Over the years they've helped businesses solve problems using unique custom software solutions, ranging from $5,000 through to $500,000. With automation tools such as Power Automate and low code solutions like Power App maturing, the opportunities are greater than ever. As one client I spoke to last month said, "their investment in software has given them a 10-point advantage over the competition." In New Zealand we often hear of the productivity gap, the mission of our software team is to provide real solutions to this problem. We will be focusing more on talking to our clients about the opportunities available.