Banking, insurance sector assets grow

SHANGHAI’S banking and insurance sector provided strong support and risk guarantees to facilitate healthy development of the local economy in 2020, the local regulator said.

At the end of 2020, total assets of the banking and insurance industries were 19.2 trillion yuan (US$2.97 trillion) and 883.2 billion yuan, respectively, an increase of 16.4 and 12.3 percent year on year, data from the Shanghai office of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission indicates.

Compared with the beginning of 2020, the balance of various loans in the banking industry increased by 515.4 billion yuan by the year’s end, and the annual indemnity and payment expenditures of the insurance industry stood at 63.1 billion yuan, greatly supporting the development of the real economy.

A total of 13 targeted documents on financial support for the resumption of work and production have been issued over the past year.

By the end of last year cumulative loans of 452.7 billion yuan were extended for COVID19 prevention and control.

Moreover, 250.8 billion yuan in principal and interest payments were temporarily postponed for small- and medium-sized firms.

The insurance sector paid out more than 438 million yuan to over 2,000 companies affected by the coronavirus.

Also, banks and insurance companies in Shanghai focused on safeguarding people’s livelihoods by expanding financial services for small businesses, health care bodies and the elderly amid the pandemic.

HACKERS broke into the computer system of a facility that treats water for about 15,000 people near Tampa, the US state of Florida, and sought to add a dangerous level of additive to the water supply, the Pinellas County Sheriff said on Monday.

The attempt on Friday was thwarted. The hackers remotely gained access to a software program named TeamViewer, on the computer of an employee at the facility for the town of Oldsmar to gain control of other systems, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said in an interview.

“The guy was sitting there monitoring the computer as he’s supposed to and all of a sudden he sees a window pop up that the computer has been accessed,” Gualtieri said.

“The next thing you know someone is dragging the mouse and clicking around and opening programs and manipulating the system.”

The hackers then increased the amount of sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, being distributed into the water supply. The chemical is typically used in small amounts to control the acidity of water, but at higher levels is dangerous to consume.

The plant employee alerted his employer, who called the sheriff.

The water treatment facility was able to quickly reverse the command, leading to minimal impact.

“The amount of sodium hydroxide that got in was minimal and was reversed quickly,” Gualtieri said.

TeamViewer, which says on its website that its software has been installed on 2.5 billion devices worldwide, enables remote technical support among other applications.

The FBI and Secret Service have been called in to assist in an investigation. Gualtieri said he does not know who is responsible for the cyber attack.