Central Bank of New Zealand reports hack

New Zealand’s central bank says an unknown hacker has hacked one of its data systems. It is possible that sensitive commercial and personal data was stolen.

According to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, an unknown hacker has broken into a file-sharing service used by the bank to share and store sensitive information. The bank announced this in a press conference on Sunday. Bank manager Adrian Orr speaks of a ‘malicious attack’. An investigation into the cause is currently underway. “It remains to be determined which and how much data has been accessed,” Orr said.

Bank manager Adrian Orr

It has not been announced when the hack took place and whether there is already a person responsible. The file-sharing service that the hacker entered is a third-party service used by the bank. The bank has not yet released which service it concerns. The bank confirms to the New Zealand Stuff.co.nz that it concerns software from the American company Accellion. It probably revolves around Kiteworks, which was used by the bank for file-sharing until at least May of last year, according to Reseller News. The bank has not yet responded.

Director Orr added: “Experts tell us it was not a specific attack on the Reserve Bank, but other users of the file sharing service were also affected.” According to Orr, the leak has now been closed, the bank no longer uses the sharing service and none of the core functions of the bank have been compromised.

Update 12.00: The bank has since confirmed that the hacker used a file sharing service from Accellion. Earlier in this article it was mentioned that it may be software from that company.

Reserve Bank of New Zealand | Photo: Kaishu Tai, Wikimedia Commons