Ion Markets, a financial data group crucial to the financial plumbing underlying the derivatives trading industry, has fallen prey to the cybercrime group Lockbit.
The company has revealed that 42 clients have been affected by the attack, which has caused major disruption in its cleared derivatives division.
Reports suggest that some clients have been unable to contact Ion by phone since Tuesday, with some travelling to the company’s office at St Pauls to seek more information.
“The incident is contained to a specific environment, all the affected servers are disconnected, and remediation of services is ongoing,” according to a post on Ion’s website.
It’s understood that the incident has impacted other trade processing systems, even forcing some companies to process trades manually.
Lockbit has been especially active recently, claiming responsibility for the attack on Royal Mail last month, which forced the company to suspend international postal deliveries.
The cybercriminal group has reportedly used its’ signature ransomware, which encrypts files and issues a ransom note, typically demanding payment in cryptocurrency before the decryption key is provided.
Expert Insight:
Jonathan Knudsen, head of global research at the Synopsys Cybersecurity Research Centre:
“Software is the critical infrastructure for all other critical infrastructure. The attack on the Ion Markets illustrates not only the interconnected nature of the financial system, but also a crucial dependence on software.
Software is a powerful tool for productivity but must be managed properly. In particular, security must be a top priority in all phases of software, from its conception through to its deployment. This applies equally to builders and buyers. Builders must ..
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