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Citizens says hackers have hit its online banking site
[January 25, 2013]

Citizens says hackers have hit its online banking site


Jan 25, 2013 (Boston Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Citizens Bank is now blaming hackers for the disruption to its online and mobile banking services.

Customers logging onto the bank's website this morning were greeted with an advisory that online services were "not available at this time." Problems with the website began yesterday.

"Our online and mobile banking services are experiencing intermittent interruptions following yesterday's Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) disruption," Jim Hughes, spokesman for the Providence-based bank, said in a statement. "A DDoS disruption hinders customers from accessing websites by slowing sites down or disabling them. Customer accounts and personal information are not compromised." A DDoS is a type of computer attack that uses a number of hosts to flood and overwhelm the server.



Earlier today, Citizens had attributed the service disruption to "unusually high volume of Internet traffic, similar to disruptions that have impacted other U.S. banks," but gave no explanation of why the volume had increased.

For immediate service, the bank advises customers to visit one of its branches or ATMs, or called its 24/7 customer contact center at 800-922-9999.


Hughes did not respond to Herald questions regarding how long the site has been experiencing the problems and how long it would take to resolve the issue.

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