The multinational bank confirms attack, saying it "did not affect any customer data, but did prevent customers using HSBC online services."
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Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET. You can e-mail him or follow him on Twitter as declanm. Declan previously was a reporter for Time and the Washington bureau chief for Wired and wrote the Taking Liberties section and Other People's Money column for CBS News' Web site.
If you haven't been able to log into your HSBC online banking account today, you're not alone.
The multinational bank based in the U.K. confirmed this afternoon that it has become the target of a denial-of-service attack that overwhelmed its servers.
This denial-of-service attack did not affect any customer data, but did prevent customers using HSBC online services, including Internet banking.
We are taking appropriate action, working hard to restore service. We are pleased to say that some sites are now back up and running.
We are cooperating with the relevant authorities and will cooperate with other organizations that have been similarly affected by such criminal acts.
Twitter users began reporting problems with connections to us.hsbc.com and other sites about 90 minutes ago. HSBC.com was still unreachable for us as of 1:45 p.m. PT.
