Hackers up the ante with targeted attacks

Pedestrians walk past the International Monetary Fund headquarters' complex in Washington in this May 2, 2010, photo. The International Monetary Fund, already reeling from last month's arrest of its former leader, is investigating an attack on its computer system. The IMF has confidential information on countries in financial trouble. The New York Times cited unnamed IMF officials as saying the attack was sophisticated and serious.

IMF is only the latest major data breach. In just the past three months, hackers have penetrated Sony PlayStation accounts, the networks of Lockheed Martin and even account information of 200,000 Citibank credit card customers. In April, Sony's PlayStation Network was shut down in April after a massive security breach that affected more than 100 million online accounts.

On June 9, 2011, Citibank said that about 200,000 Citibank credit card customers in North America had their names, account numbers and email addresses stolen by hackers who broke into Citi's online account site.

On June 1, Google said that the personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including senior U.S. government officials, military personnel and political activists, had been breached.

A customer plays a game on Nintendo's newest computer game console, Nintendo 3DS, after buying it at retail store Bic Camera in central Tokyo. Nintendo was targeted in a recent online data attack, but no personal or company information was lost, the Japanese maker of the Wii game console said on June 5, 2011.

Taiwanese PC maker Acer is investigating a hacker attack that stole customer data from its Packard Bell unit in Europe, say reports. Acer said the security breach was limited to customers' names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, and system serial numbers, the reports added. 

On May 28, US defense contractor Lockheed Martin said it had detected a "significant and tenacious attack" against its computer networks. The company said it took swift and deliberate actions to protect the network and the systems remain secure.