IMF becomes latest victim of hacking

The International Monetary Fund has succumbed to a cyber-attack, joining a growing list profile targets to fall victim to hacking.

IMF spokesman David Hawley said the organization is fully functional, but declined to provide further details on what he termed an IT incident. Hawley also declined to say if data was taken.

The IMF told staffers about it on Wednesday but hasn't made a public announcement.

The hacking comes on the heels of a string of attacks on a number of multi-national companies.

Just this week banking giant Citibank confirmed that credit card data of about 200,000 of its North American customers have been hacked. The event marked the largest attack on a bank in the US to date.

The week before US military contractor Lockheed Martin was compromised as hackers used Lockheed's own secure id technology to access its networks.

Google has accused Chinese hackers of targeting the Gmail accounts of U.S. government officials.

Moreover, the IMF is already facing a public-relations headache after the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as IMF managing director last month after being accused of sexually assaulting a maid in a New York hotel.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, Mexican central bank chief Agustin Carstens and others are vying for the top job. Stanley Fischer, Israel's central bank chief, emerged as a candidate Saturday.