It has been reported that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand used a third-party file sharing service for storing and sharing sensitive data. The bank stated on Sunday that this data had been identified to have gained unauthorized access.
According to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, one of their data systems was infringed on by an unidentified hacker who may have access to the individual as well as commercial data of the bank.
The Governor of the bank, Adrian Orr has since stated that the breach has been curbed and that the bank’s fundamental functions “remain sound and operational”.
It has also been confirmed that since the attack, the system has been guarded and taken offline until the primary investigations are completed.
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Orr also expresses the concern that the bank is yet to determine the nature and extent of the hack .” We are working closely with domestic and international cybersecurity experts and other relevant authorities as part of our investigation and response to this malicious attack,” adds Orr.
A professor at the Auckland University, Dave Parry speculates on Radio New Zealand that another government could have likely schemed this attack.“Ultimately if you were coming from a sort of like criminal perspective, the government agencies aren’t going to pay your ransom or whatever, so you’d be more interested probably coming in from a government-to-government level” comments the computer department professor.
Any indications as to when the violation cropped up, where the file-sharing service is based, or who was really responsible are yet to be cleared.
The bank declines to respond to emails regarding additional details.
It is been observed that numerous significant organizations of New Zealand have seen cyber disturbances in the past year, including the New Zealand Stock Exchange, which had its servers shunned off of public view for nearly an entire week.