WELLINGTON (Reuters) – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand said Sunday it was responding swiftly to a breach of one of its data systems.
A third-party file-sharing service used by the central bank to share and store some sensitive information was illegally obtained, the bank said in a statement.
RBNZ Governor Adrian Orr said the breach had occurred but said it would take time to fully understand the impact of this breach.
“The nature and extent of the information that may be obtained is still being determined, but it may include some commercially and personally sensitive information,” said Orr. the recitation.
In August, cyberattacks were hit by a New Zealand stock exchange operator. InPhySec, an independent cybersecurity company tasked with reviewing the cyber attacks, said the scale, luxury and resilience of the attacks were unparalleled for New Zealand.
In a Financial Stability report in November 2019, the RBNZ warned of the increasing frequency and severity of cybersecurity incidents in New Zealand.
In February last year, the bank said in a report that the expected cost of cyber events for the banking and insurance industry ranged from NZD80 million ($ 58 million) to NZD140 million per year.
“There is a low probability of worse events but they are still plausible,” the bank said in that report.
($ 1 = 1.3808 New Zealand dollars)
Reporting with Praveen Menon in Wellington and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Edited by William Mallard