Hackers attacked the world’s largest Chinese bank ICBC

Hackers attacked the American branch of the Chinese bank ICBC using ransomware. This caused some disruption to trading in US Treasuries, but did not have too significant an impact on that market. Bank employees had to perform some operations using regular USB drives. A group with Russian connections, Lockbit, is suspected of being behind the attack.

The American division of the Chinese bank ICBC – the world’s largest bank by assets – subjected to hacker attack. ICBC was attacked with ransomware that blocked computer systems and demanded a ransom payment. The attack was first reported by American media, citing sources, on Wednesday. Yesterday, November 9, ICBC confirmed the attack. The bank’s American division reported the problem to its Chinese head office, as well as to American and Chinese regulators.

The bank said the hack had disrupted some of its financial services divisions. It made trading in US Treasuries difficult as participants were forced to route trades through other banks.

Market participants said the attack had some impact on liquidity in the Treasury market.

Overall, the U.S. Treasury market was performing normally on Thursday, according to market research firm LSEG (formerly Refinitiv). According to Bloomberg, ICBC employees had to transfer some trading-related data using USB drives due to the glitch.

According to some experts, the hacker group Lockbit, which is associated with Russia, may be behind the attack. She is accused, among other things, of attacks on Boeing, ION Trading UK and Royal Mail. “We rarely see such a large bank hit by such a devastating ransomware attack,” said Allan Liska, a ransomware expert at cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.

Experts believe that the attack on ICBC will force large banks to take cybersecurity more seriously.

“This is a real shock for large banks around the world. The hacker attack on ICBC will force large banks around the world to make efforts to improve their protection right now, says Marcus Murray, founder of cybersecurity company Truesec.

Cybersecurity experts say ransomware attacks are on the rise this year, so they could hit record levels. Corvus Insurance reports that in the first three quarters of 2023, the number of such attacks increased by 95%. According to Chainalysis, from the beginning of the year to the end of September, payments to such hackers exceeded $500 million, 50% more than last year.

Yana Rozhdestvenskaya