Ares
11th June 2011, 07:26 PM
The International Monetary Fund has come under a 'serious and sophisticated' cyberattack.
The scale of the hacking is still unknown - but the confidential information held by the IMF has the potential to move markets.
Should it fall into the wrong hands and become public, the results could trigger political and economic chaos.
The agency is still in disarray from the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was head of the fund when he was accused of sexually assaulting a maid in a luxury New York hotel.
The cyberattack is believed to have taken place before Strauss-Kahn's downfall.
IMF spokesman David Hawley says the fund's computer systems are fully functional.
The New York Times cited unnamed IMF officials as saying the attack was sophisticated and serious - dangerous enough that the World Bank, located across the street from the IMF's headquarters in Washington, cut the computer link between the two bodies.
The IMF manages financial crises around the world - such as the currency crisis currently gripping much of Europe.
It receives highly confidential information about the fiscal condition of many nations that, if revealed, could prove disastrous.
Its database also contains the negotiations between national leaders on the terms of international bailouts - negotiations that are often held behind the scenes.
One official told the New York Times such agreements, if publicised, are 'political dynamite in many countries'.
'This was a very major breach,' one official told the New York Times.
However it is still unclear if any information was taken, or the attack was simply an experimental one.
A World Bank spokesman said the link between it and the IMF had been cut out of an 'abundance of caution' until the severity of the attack is understood.
The link does not permit access to confidential financial data held by other organisation - but does allow the two to share private data and conduct meetings.
Most organisations hesitate to reveal much about cyberattacks for fear they will inadvertently give hackers more to work with.
Recently Google has been the exception, aggressively announcing attacks and even pointing the finger at China - though that was quickly denied by Beijing.
The IMF spokesman would not be drawn on the origin of the attack, however. The subject will be more delicate as most nations are members of the fund.
The New York Times said the attacks may have merely been an intruder testing the system.
Or they may have been made possible by more targeted 'spear phishing', in which an individual is tricked into clicking on a link or running a programme that allows the hacker in to their network.
It is not believed that the attack is related to the sophisticated break-in at RSA Security in March.
RSA provides computer security to many companies and governments. The information stolen in March was used last month to hack into America's largest military contractor, Lockheed Martin.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2002591/Major-breach-IMF-security-hackers-break-funds-database-sophisticated-cyberattack.html#ixzz1P1Lx9uz7
The scale of the hacking is still unknown - but the confidential information held by the IMF has the potential to move markets.
Should it fall into the wrong hands and become public, the results could trigger political and economic chaos.
The agency is still in disarray from the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was head of the fund when he was accused of sexually assaulting a maid in a luxury New York hotel.
The cyberattack is believed to have taken place before Strauss-Kahn's downfall.
IMF spokesman David Hawley says the fund's computer systems are fully functional.
The New York Times cited unnamed IMF officials as saying the attack was sophisticated and serious - dangerous enough that the World Bank, located across the street from the IMF's headquarters in Washington, cut the computer link between the two bodies.
The IMF manages financial crises around the world - such as the currency crisis currently gripping much of Europe.
It receives highly confidential information about the fiscal condition of many nations that, if revealed, could prove disastrous.
Its database also contains the negotiations between national leaders on the terms of international bailouts - negotiations that are often held behind the scenes.
One official told the New York Times such agreements, if publicised, are 'political dynamite in many countries'.
'This was a very major breach,' one official told the New York Times.
However it is still unclear if any information was taken, or the attack was simply an experimental one.
A World Bank spokesman said the link between it and the IMF had been cut out of an 'abundance of caution' until the severity of the attack is understood.
The link does not permit access to confidential financial data held by other organisation - but does allow the two to share private data and conduct meetings.
Most organisations hesitate to reveal much about cyberattacks for fear they will inadvertently give hackers more to work with.
Recently Google has been the exception, aggressively announcing attacks and even pointing the finger at China - though that was quickly denied by Beijing.
The IMF spokesman would not be drawn on the origin of the attack, however. The subject will be more delicate as most nations are members of the fund.
The New York Times said the attacks may have merely been an intruder testing the system.
Or they may have been made possible by more targeted 'spear phishing', in which an individual is tricked into clicking on a link or running a programme that allows the hacker in to their network.
It is not believed that the attack is related to the sophisticated break-in at RSA Security in March.
RSA provides computer security to many companies and governments. The information stolen in March was used last month to hack into America's largest military contractor, Lockheed Martin.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2002591/Major-breach-IMF-security-hackers-break-funds-database-sophisticated-cyberattack.html#ixzz1P1Lx9uz7