The FBI has reportedly launched a probe into a cyber attack against the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the international financial institution which recently admitted that hackers breached the security of its computer systems.

The attack, which has been described a “very major breach” by one of the officials, was an attempt to install software which would provide a nation state digital insider presence in the international institution’s systems.

IMF spokesman David Hawley confirmed the investigation in the incident, but declined to elaborate further on the extent of the cyber attack.

The cyber attack against the IMF, which holds sensitive economic data about a number of countries of the world, has emerged at a time when the financial institution is struggling to get a new chief as IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been slapped with sexual assault charges.

A Bloomberg report claims that an intimate source told it that the hackers were connected to a foreign government. However, such attacks are not easy to trace.

IMF is the latest known target in the list of victims that have suffered sophisticated cyber attacks over the past months. Earlier, hackers breached the system securities of Sony, US non-profit Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and FBI affiliate InfraGard.