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TSB Bank has alerted authorities to an interruption in its banking services on Tuesday, while Kiwibank also experienced outages.
The rest of the banking sector is on high alert for cyber attacks abroad after several New Zealand companies were attacked in recent days.
TSB’s phone, website and mobile banking services all failed Tuesday afternoon.
At 1.45 pm, the bank, via its Facebook page, said it was experiencing “a network problem” with its 0800 number, mobile banking services and website.
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TSB did not say whether the problem was related to foreign groups carrying out distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks in the banking, financial and retail sectors.
TSB Executive Director Donna Cooper said she was responding to the incident.
“We have informed the appropriate authorities and will continue to work closely with them on this.”
Braden Fastier / Stuff
TSB’s phone, mobile and online banking services fell on Tuesday.
New Zealand stock market operator NZX has been hit by a sustained cyberattack abroad that disrupted trading for four days last week and crashed its website on Monday and Tuesday.
The TSB post said its 0800 number and mobile banking services were up and running again. However when Stuff He called his 0800 number, an automated message said he was not assigned or temporarily unavailable.
Their website was restored around 3.30pm.
Cooper said TSB “held firm” during its service interruption.
“TSB customers can rest assured that we have a plan that we are implementing and that we are working closely with local and international suppliers.”
Simon O’Connor / Stuff
TSB Bank CEO Donna Cooper says the bank is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
Kiwibank also reported a problem with its mobile app and its online services Tuesday afternoon, and both were unavailable for a few hours.
The outage, described by a spokesperson as “an internal problem,” was resolved at 3:10 pm.
The largest banks in the country have strengthened security to protect themselves from cybercriminals, following cyberattacks on NZX.
An ANZ spokesman said the bank took the risk “very seriously” and was on high alert.
“We have been working closely with industry bodies and our Internet service provider to keep ourselves informed of the situation and the nature of the threat.”
ANZ had been collaborating with government agencies and industry regulators, he said. “We believe our current security configuration is adequate and we remain on high alert.”
Associate Professor Lech Janczewski, from the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management at the University of Auckland, said the DDOS attacks hit websites and online services with more traffic than they could accommodate, leading to a site crash. .
The attacker chose a DDOS attack type and then found or developed the necessary software, he said.
They install that software on unprotected “zombie computers”, essentially forming a network of computers called a “botnet.”
The number of computers in a botnet can exceed 100,000, he said.
“At a certain moment or signal, all the zombies start sending messages to the attacked site, causing it to be blocked.”
