The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is actively looking for a platform to replace the third-party application which was targeted in a cyberattack earlier this year, though deputy governor Geoff Bascand said the search for an alternative is turning out to be harder than anticipated.
The Reserve Bank suffered a data breach in its third-party file sharing system, Acellion, earlier this month. Governor Adrian Orr confirmed that it was not targeted directly, and other organisations using the platform also experienced data breaches.
Bascand said that the application is no longer connected to any Reserve Bank systems, and that a search for a replacement platform was underway.
“We’ve closed down the third-party application, and that’s not connected to our systems and not being utilised,” Bascand said.
“In terms of how we go forward from here, we’re talking with the industry, security officers and technology experts to find out what is out there, and what could potentially replace the system that we head. We can assure everyone that we certainly won’t be using the same system.”
Bascand said that there has been some difficultly in sourcing out a reliable alternative, which is “surprising” given the amount of progress made by the fintech sector over the past year.
“We’re in a process of evaluation around what could be suitable and viable,” he said.
“It’s surprisingly not a deeper field of good contenders as one might have thought and hoped. A lot of other agencies were using this software, and many other parties also had their systems breached. Ultimately, we’ve got to find a solution that works for us all.”
“I’d be interested in how much progress has been made in the fintech and insurtech space over the last year,” head of supervision Andy Wood added.
“The finance and insurance sector has some big players, and I think that while our job is to maintain stability, we recognise the importance of efficiency and we want that to come through.”
