11 IMF Email Accounts Hacked, Financial Data for 190 Countries at Risk of Leaking?

Liputan6.com, Jakarta – The IMF or International Monetary Fund has just revealed that they have been victims of hacking by unknown parties.

Because of this action, unknown hackers managed to break into 11 IMF email accounts in early 2024.

It is known that this international financial institution is funded by 190 member countries and acts as a UN financial institution.

Quoting the official statement via Bleeping ComputerSaturday (16/3/2024), the IMF detected the hacking action in February 2024.

Currently, the international financial institution said it was conducting an investigation to assess the impact of the cyber attack.

At this time, the IMF has not found evidence whether the perpetrator of the cyber attack gained access to other systems or sources outside of the email account that was hacked.

“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently experienced a cyber attack on February 16, 2024,” the organization said.

The international financial institution also said, “a subsequent investigation, with the assistance of independent cybersecurity experts, determined the nature of the breach, and remediation action has been taken.”

After conducting an investigation, 11 IMF email accounts were proven to have been compromised. “Currently the affected email has been secured again,” he wrote.

The IMF also said that there was no indication that there had been any further compromise outside of the email account.

Although the IMF did not provide further details regarding the breach, it confirmed it used the Microsoft 365 cloud-based email platform.

Previously, the Midnight Blizzard Russian hacker group associated with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) stole Microsoft company emails.

A few days later, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) also revealed that Russian hackers had gained access to several Microsoft Office 365 email accounts and a lot of data since May 2023.

It is unclear whether this incident is related to the security breach that led to the breach of IMF email accounts.

In 2011, the IMF was hacked by hackers in a major incident. This forced the World Bank to disconnect the network as a form of further prevention.