New Zealand central bank hit by cyber attack

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WELLINGTON, Jan 10, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – New Zealand’s central bank said Sunday
it was responding with urgency to a “malicious” breach of one of its data
systems, a third-party file sharing service that stored “sensitive
information”.

Reserve Bank of New Zealand governor Adrian Orr said the breach had been
contained and the system was taken offline but it would take time to
determine what information had been accessed.

“We are working closely with domestic and international cyber security
experts and other relevant authorities as part of our investigation and
response to this malicious attack,” Orr said.

“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,” he added.

“It will take time to understand the full implications of this breach, and
we are working with system users whose information may have been accessed.”

In its latest report, the government agency CERT (Computer Emergency
Response Team) said cyber attacks had increased 33 percent year-on-year in
New Zealand.

The country’s stock exchange was targeted by sustained DDoS (distributed
denial of service) attacks last August, forcing trading to be halted on four
consecutive days.