EquiLend stock-lending platform down after ransomware attack
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EquiLend, a financial technology firm based in New York and integral to Wall Street's securities-lending industry, fell victim to a significant cyberattack on January 22, 2024. The attack disrupted the operations of EquiLend's platform Next Generation Trading (NGT) which processes trillions of dollars in securities transactions every month.
Following the attack's discovery, EquiLend took steps to secure its systems. The firm's response included working with external cybersecurity experts and advisors to assist in both investigating the breach and restoring affected services. Despite efforts, the company projected that full recovery could span several days, indicating the attack's severity.
No details are disclosed about the nature of the attack except that it's a ransomware attack. Also, no details are available about exposed or compromised data, financial theft or exposed individuals.
EquiLend is owned by a consortium of some of the largest financial institutions globally, including Goldman Sachs. and BlackRock. The company provides a centralized platform and a variety of services for securities trading, serving a vast network of over 200 asset owners, agency lending banks, broker-dealers, and hedge funds. On a daily basis, its NGT platform facilitates approximately $113.5 billion in transactions, underlining its critical role in global financial operations.
Update - as of 4th of February 2024, EquiLend reports that they have successfully reinstated major services including trading and post-trading solutions after last week's breach. EquiLend has not disclosed the identity of its cybersecurity partner.
As of 11th of March 2024, EquiLend confirms through notification letters to its employees that the attackers had stolen personally identifiable information (PII). The stolen data includes employees' names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers. EquiLend assured that, to date, there has been no indication that the stolen personal information has been misused for identity theft or fraud.
No details are disclosed about the number of impacted individuals.
To mitigate potential risks to its employees stemming from the data breach, EquiLend is providing two years of complimentary identity theft protection services through Identity Theft Guard Solutions (IDX).
