IMF Cyberattack Was by Foreign Government: Source

The cyberattack on IMF was carried out by hackers thought to be connected to a foreign government, not hacker collective Anonymous, according to a security expert familiar with the incident. The hackers removed a “large quantity” of data that included emails and other documents, the source says. Bloomberg obtained internal memos from June 8 warning employees that a computer had been “compromised,” IMF systems accessed, and “suspicious file transfers” carried out the week prior.

The memo continues, “At this point, we have no reason to believe that any personal information was sought for fraud purposes.” Employees had also been warned on June 1 of virus attacks and attempts to hack into the system, and on June 9 they were warned of “increased phishing activity.” (More International Monetary Fund stories.)