In a recently-released statement, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has confirmed that it has been targeted by "highly sophisticated online raids" two times till now; both the times in 2011.

The confirmation by the RBA that it has been the victim of targeted email attacks comes close on the heels of the Australian Financial Review's report that, in November 2011, the Bank - Australia's central bank - was "successfully hacked in a series of cyber attacks to infiltrate sensitive internal information."

According to the details shared in the newspaper's report, the RBA's security filters had been circumvented by an email titled 'Strategic Planning FY2012', which apparently contained a link that prompted a .zip file download; and six employees had clicked on the link.

The newspaper also cited unidentified RBA executives to report that the bank had been infiltrated by "Chinese-developed" malware seeking intelligence ahead of the November 2011-held G20 Summit in Cannes, at which China's exchange rate was discussed.

Confirming that the RBA has "on occasion been the target of cyber attacks," the Bank said in its recent statement that, thanks to its "comprehensive security arrangements," the cyber attacks had "at no point . caused the Bank's data or information to be lost or its systems to be corrupted;" and added: "The Bank's IT systems operate safely, securely and with a high degree of resilience."