Home » The Art of Data Protection » Another Day, Another Hack. IMF Targeted in the Latest Attack.

By Stephen Helm

The International Monetary Fund joined Google, Sony, Lockheed Martin, RSA Security, and CitiGroup as the latest victim in a string of targeted and sophisticated cyber-attacks. According to the New York Times, the attacks were likely to have been made possible by a technique known as “spear phishing,” in which an individual is fooled into clicking on a malicious Web link or running a program that allows open access to the recipient’s network.

While the sensitive nature of the data that was stolen is not yet known, the hack resulted in the loss of a “large quantity” of data, including documents and e-mails that, according to the New York Times, could contain "highly confidential information about the fiscal condition of many nations."

For the latest, check out the following links:

Ian Paul of PCWorld, characterized 2011 as “the Year of the Malicious Hacker”: IMF Hacked; No End in Sight to Security Horror Shows.

Peter Apps of Reuters discusses the need for greater corporation to mitigate security threats: IMF Cyber Attack Boosts Calls for Global Action.

Michael Riley and Sandrine Rastello of Bloomburg Business Week discuss the latest information about the origins of the attack: IMF State-Backed Cyber-Attack Follows Hacks of Atomic Lab, G-20

This entry was posted in Authentication, Compliance, Cybersecurity, Data Breach and tagged cyberattack, data center, DNS SEC, Energy, financial services, government, hack, healthcare, IMF, key management by Trisha Paine. Bookmark the permalink.