IMF: We were hacked

The New York Times reports that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been hit with what is described as "a large and sophisticated cyberattack whose dimensions are still unknown."

The breach happened before the IMF's managing director was accused of trying to rape a hotel worker.

The fund, which manages financial crises around the world and is the repository of highly confidential information about the fiscal condition of many nations, told its staff and its board of directors about the attack on Wednesday. But it did not make a public announcement. Several senior officials with knowledge of the attack said it was both sophisticated and serious. "This was a very major breach," said one official, who said that it had occurred over the last several months, even before Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French politician who ran the fund, was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a chamber maid in a New York hotel.