IMF latest target in string of cyber attacks

"The fund is fully functional," said IMF spokesman David Hawley. "I can confirm that we are investigating an incident. I am not in a position to elaborate further on the extent of the cybersecurity incident."

Bloomberg News reported the IMF's computer system was attacked by hackers "believed to be connected to a foreign government, resulting in the loss of e-mails and other documents."

Bloomberg, which said the attack occurred before the arrest of former IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on May 14, did not identify the country thought to be involved.

An official with the World Bank, the IMF's sister institution in Washington, said the IMF had cut its network connection with the World Bank out of "caution."

"The World Bank Group, like any other large organisation, is increasingly aware of potential threats to the security of our information system and we are constantly working to improve our defenses," said World Bank spokesman Rich Mills.

The IMF, which has sensitive information on the economics of many nations, was hit during the last several months by what computer experts described as a large and sophisticated cyber attack, The New York Times reported.

The newspaper said the IMF's board of directors was told on Wednesday about the attack.

Internal IMF memos obtained by Bloomberg warned employees to be on their guard.

"Last week we detected some suspicious file transfers, and the subsequent investigation established that a Fund desktop computer had been compromised and used to access some Fund systems," said a June 8 email obtained by Bloomberg to employees from Chief Information Officer Jonathan Palmer.

"At this point, we have no reason to believe that any personal information was sought for fraud purposes."

The incident comes when attacks on computer systems are on the rise -- especially ones targeting major companies and potentially compromising government security and customer information. Recently, there have been major attacks on defence contractor Lockheed Martin, Citigroup Inc, Sony Corp and Google .

The attack on Lockheed involved compromising its "SecurID" electronic keys issued by EMC's Ltd RSA Security division.

SecurIDs are widely used electronic keys to computer systems, designed to thwart hackers by requiring two passcodes: one that is fixed and another that is automatically generated every few seconds by the security system.

The IMF is seeking a new head following the resignation of Strauss-Kahn after he was charged with the sexual assault of a New York hotel maid.

(Reporting by Lisa Shumaker and Leslie Wroughton; Editing by Peter Cooney and Todd Eastham)