The third party file sharing programme used by the central bank to exchange and archive some classified information was unlawfully accessed, the bank said in a statement.
WELLINGTON: Reserve Bank of New Zealand reported on Sunday that it was responding urgently to a failure of one of its data systems.
The third party file sharing service used by the central bank to exchange and archive some sensitive information was illegally accessed, the bank said in a statement.
RBNZ Governor Adrian Orr said the violation had been contained but noted that it would take time to control the full implications of the infringement.
“The nature and extent of information that has been potentially accessed is still being determined, but it may include some commercially and personally sensitive information,” Orr said in a statement.
In August, the stock exchange operator of New Zealand was targeted by cyber attacks. InPhySec, an independent data security consultancy charged with reviewing cyber threats, said the volume, complexity and persistence of the attacks in New Zealand was unprecedented.
In the November 2019 Financial Stability Update, the RBNZ cautioned that the number and magnitude of cyber security incidents in New Zealand is on the rise.
In February last year, the bank announced that the estimated costs of cyber attacks for the banking and insurance sector ranged from NZD80 million ($58 million) to NZD140 million per year.
“More extreme events have a low probability but are still plausible,” the bank said in the survey.
