The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s largest bank by assets, was hit by a ransomware attack. The attack reportedly affected some of ICBC’s systems, but the bank said that its core banking system was not affected.
“ICBC is currently unable to connect to DTCC/NSCC. This issue is impacting all of ICBC’s clearing customers,” says an emergency notice issued to equity traders and shared by security research group vx-underground.
“Because of this, [censored] is temporarily suspending all inbound FIX connections and not accepting orders at this time. We are in close touch with ICBC and will advise as soon as the issue is resolved.”
ICBC said that it was able to contain the attack and restore service to its customers within a few hours. The bank did not say how much money was demanded by the attackers, or whether it paid any ransom.
