Cybersecurity
US Plays Down ION Cyberattack, Sees No ‘Systemic Financial Risk’
- Cyberattack tied to notorious ransomware gang LockBit
- Incident affects processing of trades in derivatives markets
Photographer: Oliver Nicolaas Ponder/EyeEm/Getty Images
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The cyberattack on a UK-based software firm that upended some derivatives trading doesn’t pose a “systemic risk to the financial sector,” a senior official in the US Treasury Department said Wednesday.
The attack of ION Trading UK, first reported on Tuesday, affected 42 of its clients and forced several European and US banks and brokers to process trades manually. The company’s software is used to complete derivatives trades across stock, bond and commodities markets and the outage is affecting vital processes such as the calculation of margin calls and regulatory reporting on large market positions, according to impacted brokers.