In the US, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has become the target of cybercrime, according to consistent reports from multiple news outlets. In some cases, some transactions on the US bond market in New York City could not be carried out; messengers from the Chinese bank were traveling in Manhattan with USB sticks on which the orders had been saved.
Advertisement
As Bloomberg reports, the last successful online transactions took place on Wednesday, some orders had to be withdrawn on Thursday, and regular trading resumed on Friday. On the same day, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing confirmed the attack and promised to work with the relevant US authorities.
Cybercrime – “No target is taboo anymore”
The Lockbit gang is said to be behind the attack, as Reuters claims to have learned from unnamed security experts. It is not yet known to what extent data could have been encrypted or stolen, as is usual with Lockbit attacks. However, since ICBC’s US subsidiary was temporarily unable to use its systems for online transactions, they appear to have been affected in one way or another. Lockbit’s usual confirmation of the attack is still pending.
Allan Liska told the Reuters news agency that he also believed that Lockbit was behind the attack. Liska works for the security company Recorded Future. According to him, successful attacks on large banks are quite rare. The ICBC case shows that “ransomware groups are not afraid of consequences” and therefore they “feel that no target is off limits anymore.” According to Reuters, the actual impact on bond trading in New York was said to be small.
(NO)
To the home page
#subsidiary #Chinas #largest #bank #trade #USB #stick #ransomware
