IMF was the victim of a severe hacking attack

THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF) was the victim of a hacking attack that might have gotten away with some personal information, according to reports.

The IMF joins a long list of organisations that have been hacked in recent weeks and counts Sony, Codemasters, Citibank, Lockheed Martin and RSA among those targeted.

Because of the attack, which was revealed in internal emails leaked to Bloomberg, the IMF closed down links to the World Bank. Those links have since been restored, but we suspect that its monitoring systems are now set at high alert.

Bloomberg said that spear phishing attacks were likely the intended goal of the unauthorised access, and added that one internal IMF memo contained the following message, "Staff are strongly requested NOT TO OPEN e-mails and video links without authenticating the source."

Typically, security firms have been jostling to comment on the news, not least because it was another wave crashing on high-profile defences.

"Following yet another cyber attack on a high profile organisation in recent months, it further goes to highlight how hackers are becoming more sophisticated in the methods they are using to infiltrate organisations. But the case of the IMF hack goes further than just a potential data breach that is insular to their organisation," said Paul Davis, European director at the security firm Fireeye.

"The subsequent reaction of the World Bank highlights that with increased connectivity and perhaps an increasing system inter dependency, a compromised partner, supplier or customer is a potential threat vector."

"The IMF has revealed very little about this incident but with the FBI now involved, and the World Bank cutting its network connection to the organisation, we can safely assume that the attack is of a serious nature. As yet another high profile organisation falls victim to a data breach we are once again forced to question whether it is actually possible to protect data from hackers," added Ross Brewer, VP and managing director for international markets at Logrhythm

"The sheer number of headline grabbing incidents suggests that attempts to prevent cyber attacks from occurring in the first place may be ineffective and that a new approach is required." µ