Oct 7th, 2011
Coming less than two weeks after the stunning BBC interview with Alessio Rastani and his forecast of financial doom, IMF advisor Dr. Robert Shapiro adds to the sense of urgency (video below):
"If they can not address [the financial crisis] in a credible way I believe within perhaps 2 to 3 weeks we will have a meltdown in sovereign debt which will produce a meltdown across the European banking system. We are not just talking about a relatively small Belgian bank, we are talking about the largest banks in the world, the largest banks in Germany, the largest banks in France, that will spread to the United Kingdom, it will spread everywhere because the global financial system is so interconnected. All those banks are counterparties to every significant bank in the United States, and in Britain, and in Japan, and around the world. This would be a crisis that would be in my view more serrious than the crisis in 2008.... What we don't know the state of credit default swaps held by banks against sovereign debt and against European banks, nor do we know the state of CDS held by British banks, nor are we certain of how certain the exposure of British banks is to the Ireland sovereign debt problems."
Showing posts with label IMF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IMF. Show all posts
Friday, October 7, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
A Matter Of Time
June 12th, 2011
It was reported yesterday the the IMF was the target of a cyber attack which constituted a "very major breach." It would seem that the attack came from inside the headquarters of the organization over a period of months and is alleged to have been orchestrated at the behest of an as yet unidentified "nation state." From the wikileaks phenomena to Anonymous to the recent attacks against the Sony Gaming Network, it feels as if we are firmly within an era of new vulnerabilities.
From the BBC:
"A cyber security expert told Reuters the infiltration had been a targeted attack, which installed software designed to give a nation state a "digital insider presence" at the IMF.
"The code was developed and released for this purpose," said Tom Kellerman, who has worked for the Fund.
Bloomberg quoted an unnamed security expert as saying the hackers were connected to a foreign government - however such attacks are very difficult to trace. The World Bank said it briefly cut its network connection with the Fund out "an abundance of caution".
"The World Bank Group, like any other large organisation, is increasingly aware of potential threats to the security of our information system and we are constantly working to improve our defences," said spokesman Rich Mills."
I suspect that it's only a matter of time before an intrusion of this kind actually is a game changer for the world economy.
From the BBC:
"A cyber security expert told Reuters the infiltration had been a targeted attack, which installed software designed to give a nation state a "digital insider presence" at the IMF.
"The code was developed and released for this purpose," said Tom Kellerman, who has worked for the Fund.
Bloomberg quoted an unnamed security expert as saying the hackers were connected to a foreign government - however such attacks are very difficult to trace. The World Bank said it briefly cut its network connection with the Fund out "an abundance of caution".
"The World Bank Group, like any other large organisation, is increasingly aware of potential threats to the security of our information system and we are constantly working to improve our defences," said spokesman Rich Mills."
I suspect that it's only a matter of time before an intrusion of this kind actually is a game changer for the world economy.
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