The United States operation of China’s largest bank said Thursday that it was hit by a ransomware attack, forcing clients to reroute trades and disrupting the US Treasury market.
State-owned ICBC is the biggest of China’s “Big Four” banks and the world’s largest lender by assets, according to S&P Global.
A ransomware attack is a type of malicious software that encrypts a user’s files or system, rendering them inaccessible.
ICBC Financial Services, which is headquartered in New York, said in a statement that the attack, which happened on Wednesday, had been reported to law enforcement.
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ICBC Financial Services added that it was in the process of investigating the incident and trying to recover from the cyberattack.
“We successfully cleared US Treasury trades executed Wednesday … and [repurchase agreements] financing trades done on Thursday,” it said in the statement.
The systems of ICBC’s head office in Beijing and other domestic and overseas units were not affected by this incident, nor was the ICBC New York Branch, the statement said.
Global financial regulators are assessing the fallout.
“We are aware of the cybersecurity issue and are in regular contact with key financial sector participants, in addition to federal regulators. We continue to monitor the situation,” a Treasury spokesman said.
