The United Nations on Thursday confirmed a Bloomberg report about an April 2021 cyberattack on UN computers, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
"We can confirm that unknown attackers were able to breach parts of the United Nations (communications) infrastructure in April of 2021," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
"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 United Nations is frequently targeted by cyberattacks, including sustained campaigns. 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 Thursday that hackers breached the United Nations' computer networks earlier this year and obtained a trove of data that could be used to target UN 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.