Responding to an Australian Financial Review report, the RBA issued a statement confirming that it "has on occasion been the target of cyber attacks".

However, it claims that its security procedures have "isolated these attacks and ensured that viruses have not been spread across the Bank's network or systems. At no point have these attacks caused the Bank's data or information to be lost or its systems to be corrupted."

At one point, the RBA's systems were infiltrated by a piece of Chinese-developed malware designed to seek out intelligence on G20 negotiations, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Another attack in November 2011 saw hackers defeat two different anti-virus programs and install a Trojan on six RBA computers after employees clicked malicious links in e-mails.

The central bank has since called in a private security firm to carry out testing of its networks to improve its defences.