diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 3519ce30d92..6aff1fcc83e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -64,6 +64,8 @@ Ref: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/
 
 ### State Machine Breaking
 
+* (apps/27-interchain-accounts) [\#1882](https://github.com/cosmos/ibc-go/pull/1882) Explicitly check length of interchain account packet data in favour of nil check.
+
 ### Improvements
 
 * (linting) [\#1418](https://github.com/cosmos/ibc-go/pull/1418) Fix linting errors, resulting compatiblity with go1.18 linting style, golangci-lint 1.46.2 and the revivie linter.  This caused breaking changes in core/04-channel, core/ante, and the testing library.
diff --git a/modules/apps/27-interchain-accounts/types/packet.go b/modules/apps/27-interchain-accounts/types/packet.go
index e7669a77fc9..59419f8f302 100644
--- a/modules/apps/27-interchain-accounts/types/packet.go
+++ b/modules/apps/27-interchain-accounts/types/packet.go
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ func (iapd InterchainAccountPacketData) ValidateBasic() error {
 		return sdkerrors.Wrap(ErrInvalidOutgoingData, "packet data type cannot be unspecified")
 	}
 
-	if iapd.Data == nil {
+	if len(iapd.Data) == 0 {
 		return sdkerrors.Wrap(ErrInvalidOutgoingData, "packet data cannot be empty")
 	}
 
diff --git a/modules/apps/27-interchain-accounts/types/packet_test.go b/modules/apps/27-interchain-accounts/types/packet_test.go
index 3bf0d5bd572..462b347e809 100644
--- a/modules/apps/27-interchain-accounts/types/packet_test.go
+++ b/modules/apps/27-interchain-accounts/types/packet_test.go
@@ -40,6 +40,15 @@ func (suite *TypesTestSuite) TestValidateBasic() {
 		},
 		{
 			"empty data",
+			types.InterchainAccountPacketData{
+				Type: types.EXECUTE_TX,
+				Data: []byte{},
+				Memo: "memo",
+			},
+			false,
+		},
+		{
+			"nil data",
 			types.InterchainAccountPacketData{
 				Type: types.EXECUTE_TX,
 				Data: nil,