The International Monetary Fund (IMF) found out that almost a dozen email accounts were hacked.
The IMF recently discovered a cybersecurity issue involving almost a dozen email accounts.
In a statement last week, the United Nations financial institution said it found the security breach on February 16, 2024.
An investigation with external cybersecurity experts showed that 11 IMF email accounts were compromised. The accounts were secured again, and there’s no sign in the ongoing investigation that the attacker accessed more than these email accounts.
“The IMF takes cyber incidents seriously and operates under the assumption that they will happen,” the agency said. “The IMF has a strong cybersecurity program to respond to such incidents quickly.”
It’s not clear what the attackers wanted or what data they got from the IMF email accounts.
Hacking the email accounts of a major financial organization like the IMF could be useful to state-sponsored cyberspies or profit-driven cybercriminals who might try to use the accounts for advanced social engineering.
The IMF told Reuters that the hacked accounts didn’t include those of Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva or other top officials. The agency said top leadership wasn’t targeted.
This seems to be the first cybersecurity incident the IMF has disclosed since 2011 when the agency was targeted in a cyberattack that reportedly led to the loss of a large amount of data, including documents and emails.
