The UN has confirmed a Bloomberg news report about an April 2021 cyberattack on its computers.
“We can confirm that unknown attackers were able to breach parts of the UN (communications) infrastructure in April of 2021,” Xinhua news agency quoted Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as saying on Thursday.
“This attack had been detected before we were notified by the company cited in the Bloomberg article, and corrective actions to mitigate the impact of the breach had already been planned and were being implemented.
“At that time, we thanked the company for sharing information related to the incident and confirmed the breach to them,” said the spokesman.
The UN is frequently targeted by cyberattacks, including sustained campaigns, and the world body can also confirm that further attacks that are linked to the earlier breach have been detected and are being responded to, he said.
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that hackers breached the UN’s computer networks earlier this year and obtained a trove of data that could be used to target agencies.
The hackers were able to purchase off the dark web the stolen username and password of a UN employee, said Bloomberg.
The UN spokesman did not say how detrimental the April attack was.