The International Monetary Fund hit by a sophisticated cyberattack

The New York Times has just posted a story that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was hit by what security experts are calling an extremely sophisticated cyberattack.

While there was no public announcement the IMF staff and board of director were told about the attack on Wednesday along with the fact that they are still unsure of the breadth of the attack.

Several senior officials with knowledge of the attack said it was both sophisticated and serious. “This was a very major breach,” said one official, who said that it had occurred over the last several months, even before Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French politician who ran the fund, was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a chamber maid in a New York hotel.

Asked about the reports of the computer attack late Friday, a spokesman for the fund, David Hawley, declined to provide details or talk about the scope or nature of the intrusion. “We are investigating an incident, and the fund is fully functional,” he said.

The attack was so concerning that the World Bank, which is located just across the street from the IMF offices, cut the dedicated computer link between the two organizations saying that it was done out of “an abundance of caution”.