NZ websites down – Security update causes widespread internet outages

An internet glitch rendered banking apps and a number of .co.nz websites inaccessible for some users this morning.

It appears to be related to an attempt by InternetNZ – the non-profit that administers local web domains – to rollout a better system for protecting users from fake versions of websites.

“Our apologies, we’re aware that certain Internet Service providers are encountering issues this morning. This means some of our customers will have issues accessing FastNet Classic and ASB mobile,” ASB posted this morning on its Facebook page.

And after Sheri Ngaha complained on Kiwibank’s Facebook page “Why can’t we get into the app or ring this morning. This is so annoying, I’m needing to transfer money but can’t,” the bank replied: “We’re currently experiencing an issue for some customers when trying to access our App or Internet Banking. Our teams are looking into this at the moment and we hope to have this resolved soon.”

On Twitter, Hamish Mack posted: “NZ sites RNZ, New World shopping online and Kiwibank sites are not working? What the heck??”

And Rebecca McMillan said the outage did not seem to have affected Govt.nz but all NZ apps and websites she used were down.

“Can’t even listen to @radionz because the mobile app is down. Yikes. Time to get a transistor radio.”

A service bulletin from InternetNZ late yesterday noted technical problems that hit .ac.nz (education) addresses yesterday then spread to other local domains from 10.45pm last night. InternetNZ today said all times of local internet addresses were affected. An update at 9.21am this morning said, “The issue will resolve over time”.

Responding to a Herald query on Twitter, cloud computing engineer Simon Lyall said, “InternetNZ was changing the key they use to sign .nz and made a mistake. So DNS [domain name server] queries are getting a certificate error.” In other words, it seems a change designed to boost security went haywire, rendering some sites inaccessible. It seems the change related to a measure to prevent…