New Zealand central bank has been hit by a cyberattack. The bank said on Sunday morning that it had received an urgent signal that one of its data systems had been infected by ‘malicious’.

This bank IT officer thinks that third parties have tried to take sensitive information. The news agency AFP reported this information.

Malware is an acronym for Malicious Software. It is a type of software program that is used to disrupt the normal functioning of the system, to steal confidential information, and to make illegal intrusions into a protected computer network system.

The governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Adrian Orr said the cyberattack had taken place and that the system had been taken offline.

However, it will take time to determine whether any information was entered. “We are investigating the incident,” he added.

I am working closely with local and international cybersecurity experts to determine who carried out this malware attack.

The nature and extent of potentially accessed information are still being determined. It is feared that this may include some commercial and personal sensitive information.

A recent report by the government agency  Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) found that cyber-attacks in New Zealand had risen sharply over the years.

It has increased by 33 percent in just one year.