While not strictly security-related, I just wanted to draw your attention to the upcoming DNS "Flag Day", as it has the potential to cause some operational problems if it catches you out. (Apologies if you have already received this advice from the Ministry via other channels.)

The Ministry recently received notification that – on 1 February 2019 - changes will be made to international Domain Name System (DNS) software on what is called ‘DNS Flag Day’. This will affect New Zealand and the ".nz" namespace. Your organisation should have already received this advisory from Internet NZ but we wanted to proactively provide the notice here as well, just in case.

These changes will cause domains that are hosted on outdated or non-compliant name servers to break.  You can check whether any other domains you have registered – such as .co.nz or .com domains – using a DNS Flag Day testing tool.

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Posted on behalf of :

Nick Baty
Chief Security Advisor l Digital Strategy and Investment l
Data and Digital Directorate l
Ministry of Health

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