Yahoo News reports that the International Monetary Fund was investigating a cyber-attack launched in its computer system. According to the news source, the IMF maintained that the organization is fully functional without any indication that any sensitive data has been compromised. Yet, the “New York Times cited unnamed IMF officials as saying the attack was sophisticated and serious”.
Concerns about the IMF attack were great enough that the World Bank cut a computer link that allows the two organizations to share non-sensitive information, according to a bank official. The move was taken out of “an abundance of caution,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the security issues around the incident.
The operation of the IMF requires in some cases they maintain data on some countries in financial trouble which are not made available to the general public. So hackers have an incentive to get that kind of data even for investment purposes. For instance, knowing that a country is going to default on its loan based on IMF negotiation can help an investor decide how to trade on that nation’s bond. There are many reasons why hackers can target IMF.
It seems that this decade is evolving as the decade of hackers with so many hacks emerging already. Even in the developing nations, we have seen the enormous level of hacker activity in banks, companies and even governments. Many Nigerian federal websites were compromised when a group of hackers launched attacks to protest the nature of governance in the nation. This means that organizations must be up and doing and work hard to secure their digital assets.
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In the last few months, we have noted a number of cyber breaches and this all call for a stakeholders discussion about the future of the internet and security. It is important that the world looks at this and sees how we can redesign the web architectures to curtail this trend that is harming the confidence and trust of many in participating in the digital economy.
Technology is redesigning the global structure and in most cases it is changing the ways we do things. As we move from the meatspace to the cyberspace to conduct our businesses, we must not forget that what worked in the old cubicles is still relevant now. Organizations must note that without adequate security, any investment on digital asset is unwise. We must work hard to anticipate that people will like to steal digital assets and mitigate those actions before they happen.