Unknown group of hackers have breached the New Zealand's Treasury Department computer systems, throwing the country's annual budget in disarray, Bloomberg reports.
The news came from New Zealand's Treasury Secretary after the main opposition National Party released part of the annual budget.
"Following this morning's media reports of a potential leak of budget information, the Treasury has gathered sufficient evidence to indicate that its systems have been deliberately and systematically hacked," Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf said in an email statement on Tuesday in Wellington. "The Treasury has referred the matter to the police on the advice of the National Cyber Security Centre."
According to Bloomberg, National Party leader Simon Bridges, on Tuesday revealed what he described as "key details" of the budget such as the spending plan for defense and health which he claimed that were designed to suite appease Arden's coalition partner New Zealand First and its leader Winston Peters. Bridges, however, didn't name the source where he got his information from.
This hack incident happened just two days before the due date for the release of the budget by the government.
The Finance Minister Grant Robertson has confirmed some of the numbers released by the opposition to be accurate as he described the hacking of budget information as something "extremely serious" and that it was now a matter for police.
"We have contacted the National Party tonight to request that they do not release any further material, given that the Treasury said they have sufficient evidence that indicates the material is a result of a systematic hack and is now subject to a police investigation," Robertson said.