Research & Reports
What NZ's cyber leaders are actually dealing with.
In-depth research on how New Zealand organisations govern cyber risk. Perspectives from CROs, CISOs, and practitioners across the private and public sectors.
Cyber Resilience and Governance in New Zealand
Based on in-depth interviews and a practitioner survey across New Zealand's private and public sectors, this report captures how CROs, CISOs, and cyber practitioners are navigating risk appetite, board reporting, framework adoption, and the growing gap between compliance on paper and real organisational resilience.
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What's inside
- 1
Foreword
David Turner, CEO RiskNZ, and Kirsten Patterson MNZM, CEO Institute of Directors — on the state of cyber governance in Aotearoa.
- 2
Chief Risk Officers
Risk appetite, board reporting, and investment decision-making: what NZ CROs are prioritising and where the gaps are.
- 3
Chief Information Security Officers
Framework adoption, shadow IT, and how CISOs translate technical risk into governance language for executive teams.
- 4
Cyber Practitioners
Survey findings on maturity levels, leadership engagement, and the practitioner-to-governance gap across large NZ organisations.
- 5
Sector Highlights
Private sector vs public sector: a direct comparison of cyber posture, resourcing, board engagement, and confidence.
- 6
Final Thoughts
Chris Hawksworth, CEO, Speculo — on the gap between knowing and doing, and what comes next.
Speculo · 2026
Cyber Resilience and Governance in New Zealand
Public & Private Sector Edition
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Voices from the field
What NZ security leaders told us.
“Too many people hit by breaches have chaos because they never planned for a bad day.”
“There's a vast difference in capability and maturity across government. Everyone uses different providers and approaches, yet systems are increasingly interlinked — that's risky.”
“One of the biggest risks is a cyber incident through that third party. It's critical that you've got clear accountability of management of cyber risks for third parties as well.”
See how Speculo helps NZ organisations close the gap.
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