Recent evidence shows that Chinese cyber spies are behind the attack on the International Monetary Fund in May, according to sources close to the investigation cited by Bloomberg.
After several weeks of research, scientists have evidence incriminating China, including an analysis of the method of attack and electronic trail left by hackers after the theft of numerous documents from IMF computers. The multi-layered attack, which used servers in the U.S., ended May 31, sources said.
The conclusion of the investigators is an important test for the new IMF chief, Christine Lagarde, who recently appointed to the position of deputy director a Chinese economist Zhu Min, in order to increase the participation of China in the Fund. “There are some questions about the role that China wants to play in the global economic system and the role it can play, if we consider the behavior of this country”, said Fred Bergsten, from the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
People familiar with the incident said that hackers were able to download huge amounts of documents from dozens of IMF computers, infecting the network with a sophisticated spy software, downloaded initially to a computer by one of the employees.FMI didn’t provide any details on attackers or the importance of missing documents.
The attack on the IMF overlapped with a period when China has strongly increased the lobby, in order to get more influence at IMF. WAO Baodong, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington replied that “whoever knowingly say such things about China is irresponsible”.