HSBC online banking hit by DDoS attack

As workers eagerly awaited the arrival of their first payday of 2016, and others rushed to file their tax returns ahead of Sunday's deadline, HSBC's online banking services were knocked offline today.

The banking giant was hit by a DDoS, but it is not yet clear who is responsible. The attack meant that customers were unable to access their online accounts, and it is just the latest in a strong of high-profile security issues to affect well-known sites.

The bank says that while the DDoS attack was certainly problematic, customer accounts were safe: "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".

While HSBC says that it has been able to successfully fight off the cyber-attack, the disruption continues. Users attempting to access their online accounts are greeted by an apologetic message:

Sorry…

We'd like to apologise to all our customers for Online Banking being unavailable.

We know how inconvenient this is and we are doing everything we can to rectify the problem.

Please try later.

The bank also used its Twitter account to reassure customers -- and investors -- that everything possible is being done to find the culprits:

HSBC is working closely with law enforcement authorities to pursue the criminals responsible for today’s attack on our internet banking.

— HSBC UK (@HSBC_UK) January 29, 2016