Hackers have attacked the United Nations (UN) offices in Geneva and Vienna. The cyber attack on the United Nations‘ IT infrastructure had already happened last summer, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric in New York.
„Very well-equipped attack“
„The mapping of an IT attack remains vague and uncertain, so we are unable to identify a specific attacker, but it was certainly a very well-equipped attack,“ said Dujarric.
However, the attackers could not have obtained sensitive data and all damage had been repaired. „The risk of further attacks remains, and the UN detects and responds daily to numerous attacks of various quality levels.“
Often attacks on institutions
Hacker attacks on politics and institutions are no longer uncommon internationally. It was only at the turn of the year that the State Department discovered a serious cyber attack on its computer systems. At the end of 2016, the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was the victim of a „large-scale hacker attack“, which was suspected to be a Russian hacker collective.
It was only in mid-August 2019 that hackers managed to inject malware into the networks of the European Central Bank (ECB). A hacking attack on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague that was thwarted in October 2018 was also attributed to Russia. Several NATO websites were shut down in March 2014 and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was hit in 2011.
