Following a recent cyber attack, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has set in motion investigation to find out from where it emanated and also to ensure that the IMF systems were protected from any kind of cyber attack.

Security experts said the source seemed to be a “nation state” aiming to gain a “digital insider presence” on the network of the IMF, the inter-governmental group that oversees the global financial system.

Earlier this year it was revealed computers at France’s finance Ministry had been hacked and were silently redirecting data to websites in China, apparently in an effort to steal documents relating to February’s G-20 summit.

An internal memo issued on June 8 from the IMF’s chief information officer, Jonathan Palmer, told staff that suspicious file transfers had been detected and that an investigation had shown a desktop computer “had been compromised and used to access some Fund systems”.