The Reserve Bank (RBNZ) is delaying publishing data routinely provided to it by retail banks, as the system banks use to share this information with their regulator is the one that's been hacked.
The RBNZ on January 10 announced it took the file-sharing system - provided to it by the firm Accellion - offline, as it had been illegally accessed.
Consequently, the RBNZ was unable to publish a couple of datasets due for release on Monday.
It explained: “While we work through the investigation and response to the breach, we are putting publication of some of our statistical releases on hold, including the weekly Bank Customer Lending tables C65 and C66 today.”
These datasets detail the value of missed mortgage repayments, mortgages that have switched to ‘interest only’ and mortgage repayments that have been deferred.
They also detail the value of restructured business loans and Business Finance Guarantee Scheme (government-backed) loans provided by banks.
The RBNZ didn’t specify which other statistical releases would be delayed because of the data breach.
It said it was still working out exactly what information had been illegally accessed.
“It is a complex process, however, at this early stage it is clear that the breach is significant and involved sensitive, private stakeholder information,” the RBNZ said.
“The Bank’s core functions, and New Zealand’s financial system remain sound. The Reserve Bank is open for business, including market operations and management of the cash and payments system...
"While a malicious third party has committed the crime, we believe the Bank has fallen short of the standards our stakeholders set for us and apologise for this unreservedly."
9 Comments
I think the announcement is for public consumption to allay fears. Its been a two or three weeks and they haven't sorted it out yet. After all what are is it. A thousand or so files probably totaling no more than 5G. Can't sort out a secure file server in the interim. After all the data flow is very likely to be one way, Banks to RBNZ. A Bank official with a usb stick hand delivers to RBNZ direct if couriers can't be trusted with such important data.
Also the company who provides the secure file server said that they had warned RBNZ about some security issue last year. Whether this is valid in order to protect their image so they don't loose other clients remains to be seen.
I smell a rat. A PR cover up of something more serious affecting the financial stability of the banking system, time will tell.
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