Gang Behind Cyberattack On World's Biggest Bank Has Hacked 1,000 Victims
NDTV
The incident spotlights a danger that bank leaders concede keeps them up at night - the prospect of a cyberattack that could someday cripple a key piece of the financial system's wiring, setting off a cascade of disruptions.
On Thursday, trades handled by the world's largest bank in the globe's biggest market traversed Manhattan on a USB stick.
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.'s US unit had been hit by a cyberattack, rendering it unable to clear swathes of US Treasury trades after entities responsible for settling the transactions swiftly disconnected from the stricken systems. That forced ICBC to send the required settlement details to those parties by a messenger carrying a thumb drive as the state-owned lender raced to limit the damage.
The workaround - described by market participants - followed the attack by suspected perpetrator Lockbit, a prolific criminal gang with ties to Russia that has also been linked to hits on Boeing Co., ION Trading UK and the UK's Royal Mail. The strike caused immediate disruption as market-makers, brokerages and banks were forced to reroute trades, with many uncertain when access would resume.
