IMF investigating the hacking of 11 internal email accounts, denies suffering a breach

The International Monetary Fund recently experienced a cyber security incident that compromised 11 email accounts associated with its employees.

 

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations made up of 190 member countries. Founded in 1944, the organisation was raised to stabilise economies by providing loans to governments around the world.

 

In a recent press release, the agency said that on February 16, it detected a cyber security incident affecting its internal network. It immediately launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to understand the nature and scope of the incident.

 

“The investigation determined that eleven (11) IMF email accounts were compromised. The impacted email accounts were re-secured. We have no indication of further compromise beyond these email accounts at this point in time. The investigation into this incident is continuing,” reads the press release.

 

“The IMF takes prevention of, and defense against, cyber incidents very seriously and, like all organisations, operates under the assumption that cyber incidents will unfortunately occur. The IMF has a robust cyber security program in place to respond quickly and effectively to such incidents,” the organisation added.

 

According to the Reuters, the affected email accounts did not belong to any senior executives, be it IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva or other top officials.

 

“The MD and her top leadership team were not targeted,” an IMF spokesperson told Reuters.

 

The organisation is yet to disclose details on how the threat actors behind the cyber attack infiltrated its internal systems or whether the compromised email accounts contained any sensitive or confidential information.

 

When asked who is responsible for the cyber security incident, an IMF spokesperson told Recorded Future News, “For security reasons, we cannot disclose further details. We cannot confirm attribution.”