FBI investigates 'major breach' of IMF security as fund comes under cyberattack

The FBI has been called in as the International Monetary Fund has come under a 'serious and sophisticated' cyberattack. 

The agency is still in disarray from the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was head of the fund when he was accused of sexually assaulting a maid in a luxury New York hotel.Should it fall into the wrong hands and become public, the results could trigger political and economic chaos. The scale of the hacking is still unknown - but the confidential information held by the IMF has the potential to move markets.One expert said the goal of the attack was to establish a 'digital insider presence' for a nation inside the fund's network. IMF spokesman David Hawley says the fund's computer systems are fully functional.'It was a targeted attack,' said Tom Kellerman, a cybersecurity expert who worked at both the World Bank and the IMF.He understands the network architecture at both international financial institutions and who serves on the board of a group known as the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance.The cyberattack is believed to have taken place before Strauss-Kahn's downfall.'The code was developed and released for this purpose,' he said. The goal was to install software that would give a nation state a 'digital insider presence' on the network, he told Reuters.

The New York Times cited unnamed IMF officials as saying the attack was sophisticated and serious - dangerous enough that the World Bank, located across the street from the IMF's headquarters in Washington, cut the computer link between the two bodies. 

Its database also contains the negotiations between national leaders on the terms of international bailouts - negotiations that are often held behind the scenes.The IMF manages financial crises around the world - such as the currency crisis currently gripping much of Europe.It receives highly confidential information about the fiscal condition of many nations that, if revealed, could prove disastrous.