Secure Innovation

This guidance is designed to help protect New Zealand’s emerging technology companies from a range of threats, particularly those posed by foreign-state actors.

Secure Innovation banner

Secure Innovation: Security Advice for Emerging Technology Companies has been created for emerging New Zealand technology companies by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) and the Government Communications Security Bureau’s (GCSB) National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

The guidance expands upon a set of five principles released by Five Eyes security and intelligence agencies in October 2023. Each Five Eyes partner has produced their own guidance based on these principles.

The collaboration means businesses in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US can benefit from consistent and consolidated advice reflecting the global nature of the security threats start-ups face. 

The five principles of Secure Innovation

  1. Know the threats – understand the potential vulnerabilities that might put your product or innovation at risk.

  2. Secure your business environment - create clear lines of ownership around the management of security risks in a business. Appoint a security lead at board level who factors in security considerations into decisions and initiatives.

  3. Secure your products - build security into the front end of your products by design. This will help protect your IP, make your products more marketable and ensure your products don’t become a supply chain vulnerability.

  4. Secure your partnerships - make sure the people you collaborate with are who they say they are and can be trusted with your company’s IP.

  5. Secure your growth - be aware of security risks as you expand, such as hiring new people into positions of trust and managing risk around entering new markets.