The US arm of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China reportedly paid a ransom to restore its systems following a hacking incident last week that disrupted trading in US Treasuries.
The blackout at ICBC’s US broker-dealer temporarily left it owing BNY Mellon $9 billion, a figure significantly larger than its net capital. The hackers are believed to have accessed ICBC’s technology infrastructure by exploiting vulnerabilities in the Citrix NetScaler product family.
The notorious LockBit gang claimed responsibility for the ransom payment, stating, “They paid a ransom, deal closed,” via Tox, an online messaging app. According to the Department of Justice, LockBit has conducted over 1400 attacks against US victims and previously targeted trading technology firm ION, which also paid a ransom to recover its system.