New Zealand: Hackers attack the Central Bank

The Central Bank of New Zealand claims to have been the target of a hacker attack. The central bank announced on Sunday that anonymous had gained access to an external file-sharing platform that the RBNZ used to transfer and store some confidential data.

Central Bank Governor Adrian Orr said the volume and nature of the information that may have been stolen remains unclear. “But there may be some economic and personal sensitive information.” The bank’s core business is intact.

Ur said the incident was being treated as a “top priority”. In cooperation with local and international cybersecurity experts, the central bank is already working to investigate and respond to this “malicious attack”.

An expert expects more attacks on New Zealand institutions

IT security researcher Dave Barry suspects a foreign government was behind the attack. A professor of computer science at the University of Auckland told Radio New Zealand that such a hack is not worth it for a criminal organization, because “state institutions will not pay you a ransom.” On the other hand, a foreign country could be more interested. Barry predicted the possibility of more such attacks soon.

The central bank itself warned a good year ago that the number and extent of cyber attacks in the country was increasing. And in the past few months, such incidents have increased in large organizations. Among other things, the operator of the New Zealand stock exchange was the victim of a hacker attack in August.