China's biggest lender, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, paid a ransom after it was hacked last week, a Lockbit ransomware gang representative said on Monday in a statement which Reuters was unable to independently verify.
The hack was so extensive that even corporate email at the firm ceased to function, forcing employees to switch to Google mail, Reuters reported.
The ransomware attack came at a time of heightened worries about the resiliency of the $26 trillion Treasury market, essential to the plumbing of global finance, and is likely to draw scrutiny from regulators.
"We are reminding members to stay current on all protective measures and patch critical vulnerabilities immediately," a spokesperson said in a statement, adding: "Ransomware remains one of the top threat vectors facing the financial sector."
Lockbit has hacked some of the world's largest organisations in recent months, stealing and leaking sensitive data in cases where victims refused to pay ransom.
Some companies have quietly paid up in a bid to get back online quickly and avoid the reputational damage of having their sensitive data publicly leaked.
Last week, Lockbit hackers published internal data from aerospace giant Boeing BA.N and said on their website they had infected computer systems at law firm Allen & Overy.
The original article contains 455 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 62%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!