The Fire Service says a "lapse of judgment" by two staff members caused it to lose $52,000 in a scam last month.
The service announced it had lost the money in a Turkish-based scam.
Fire Service chief executive and national commander Paul Baxter said internal and external auditors found no breach of Fire Service computer systems and no collusion from employees.
"The investigation found our procurement and expenditure approval policies to be perfectly sound, but in this case they simply weren't followed," Mr Baxter said.
"As a result, we will be running refresher courses on relevant policies and also providing training on cyber risks."
He said a review of all overseas financial transactions this year confirmed the so-called "whaling" attack was a one-off incident.
Mr Baxter claimed "appropriate action" had been taken relating to the two staff members, but would not go into more detail.
"The scam involved email correspondence, ostensibly in the chief executive's name, to order the transfer of funds to a Turkish bank account," the Fire Service said.
Whaling scams target high-level executives, using email addresses similar to employee addresses, to make it appear as though they're requesting the funds.
Te Wananga o Aotearoa also fell for a whaling scam this year, and was working to retrieve the money after its chief financial officer transferred about $118,000 to an offshore bank account in the con.
In September, Internal Affairs sent a warning about the fraud, saying five other companies had also been involved.
