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HSBC suffers online banking cyber-attack HSBC suffers online banking cyber-attack
(about 3 hours later)
HSBC customers have been locked out of internet banking after the company was targeted by cyber criminals in a “denial of service” attack.HSBC customers have been locked out of internet banking after the company was targeted by cyber criminals in a “denial of service” attack.
In a tweet, the bank said that internet banking had been attacked, but it had successfully defended its systems. It told customers it was working hard to restore service adding: “We apologise for any inconvenience.” The bank, which has 17 million personal banking and business customers in the UK, said its website had been attacked, but it had “successfully defended” its systems. It said it was working to restore services, would waive any fees incurred by customers as a direct result of the incident.
A denial of service attack overwhelms a website with traffic, taking it offline, and is sometimes used as a smokescreen for other attacks. The attack came on what is likely to have been a busy day for online banking, as many employees received their first pay packet of the year.
This is the second time in a month that the bank’s customers have been locked out of online services, although last time the bank said it was not the result of a cyber attack but a technical issue in HSBC’s systems. A denial of service attack overwhelms a website with traffic, taking it offline, and is sometimes used as a smokescreen for other attacks. The bank said there were no indications of any impact on customer data security.
A spokesperson for the bank said: “HSBC internet banking came under a denial of service attack this morning, which affected personal banking websites in the UK.A spokesperson for the bank said: “HSBC internet banking came under a denial of service attack this morning, which affected personal banking websites in the UK.
“HSBC has successfully defended against the attack and customer transactions were not affected. We are working hard to restore services, and normal service is now being resumed. We apologise for any inconvenience this incident may have caused.”“HSBC has successfully defended against the attack and customer transactions were not affected. We are working hard to restore services, and normal service is now being resumed. We apologise for any inconvenience this incident may have caused.”
The bank said there were no indications of any impact on customer data security. This is the second time in a month that the bank’s customers have been locked out of online services, although last time the bank said it was not the result of a cyber attack but a technical issue in HSBC’s systems.
Robert Capps of tech company NuData Security, said distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) were not direct attacks on the accounts at financial institutions. “They are attacks on the public image and consumer goodwill towards those institutions,” he said. “They are meant to harass, intimidate and embarrass a targeted institution, but the DDoS attacks rarely result in any lasting impact on individual accounts at an institution.”
However, he said the attacks had been used as cover for other activities, such as cyber-heists, at a targeted institution.
“They are sometimes meant to draw away the attention of the information security teams of a financial institution from the real intent of the attacks, such as large value money transfers, or the bulk theft and removal of consumer account data.
“Only time will tell if the HSBC cyber attack is simply a DDoS attack or a cover for a much more damaging intrusion into their systems.”