The United Nations has confirmed the Bloomberg news article regarding an cyberattack on its computers in April 2021.
Xinhua news agency quoted Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as saying on Thursday, “We can confirm that unknown attackers were able to breach parts of the UN (communications) infrastructure in April of 2021,”
“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.
The spokesman said “At that time, we thanked the company for sharing information related to the incident and confirmed the breach to them,”
He said that the UN is routinely targeted by cyberattacks, including long-term efforts, and that the world body can also confirm that more attacks relating to the prior breach have been detected and are being addressed.
Hackers hacked the UN’s computer networks earlier this year, according to Bloomberg, and got a trove of data that could be used to target agencies.
According to Bloomberg, the hackers were able to purchase the stolen username and password of a UN employee on the dark web.
The UN spokesman did not specify the extent of the April attack’s damage.