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NatWest: Website problems caused by deliberate attack | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
NatWest Bank has blamed earlier problems with its website on a series of deliberate attacks, known as a distributed denial of service (DDoS). | |
It involved a surge of traffic, which resulted in many customers being unable to use the system. | |
Such attacks - which are typically malicious - can originate from thousands of different sources, making them difficult to block. | |
The issue lasted for about 50 minutes on Friday. | |
"The issues that some customers experienced accessing online banking this morning were due to a surge in internet traffic deliberately directed at the website," said a spokesperson for Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which owns NatWest. | |
Dozens of customers took to Twitter to vent their frustration. | |
Some complained that salary payments were not being paid, others that the website was very slow. | |
The bank said there was no risk to customers and that services were now operating as normal. | |
The issue is thought to be totally separate from problems in June, when payments were held up for several days. | |
At that time as many as 600,000 customers of RBS and NatWest suffered late payments. | At that time as many as 600,000 customers of RBS and NatWest suffered late payments. |
Salaries, tax credit and benefit payments were all affected. | Salaries, tax credit and benefit payments were all affected. |
RBS was also fined £56m by the regulator after a software upgrade in 2012 went wrong. | RBS was also fined £56m by the regulator after a software upgrade in 2012 went wrong. |
Up to 6.5 million customers were left unable to access their accounts. | Up to 6.5 million customers were left unable to access their accounts. |