HSBC online banking outage: Moneymen are 'still under attack' HSBC has admitted it still facing a sustained denial of service attack, after the incident which began this morning left customers unable to use their online banking services. John Hackett, the bank's UK chief operating officer, said: “HSBC’s internet and mobile services have partially recovered, and we continue to work to …
Given that this is the second time this has happened this month alone, perhaps the CTO should admit that he has failed, step down and seek gainful employment elsewhere. Ultimately, the buck stops with him and he's been found wanting. Twice, yet.
Of course, this won't happen and I have no doubt he'll trouser a nice bonus for successfully 'defending' against an alleged DDoS attack whilst at the same time overseeing the outsourcing of any remaining competent IT staff.
Weasels, the lof of them.
Trebles all round!
End users aren't really in a position to defend against a proper DDoS. That can only really be done at the ISP level and isn't particularly easy to do without drastic measures (like blocking all source addresses from outside the UK heading to the UK HSBC website for example).
I'm guessing, and it really is just a wild-assed guess, that this is related to the attacks recently on Janet, ProtonMail, etc. Each attack has been a bit stronger and the target more meaningful to the general population than the previous. The thing in common with them and makes me think this has been the location of the targets.
All calls to HSBC are 'recorded', the term HSBC adopts for voice analysis.
A background paper said: "The smart phone would capture the customer’s spoken words and transmits it to the bank for authorisation. The sent words would then be compared with his voice in the database, if it matches, he would be authorised. If not, he would be denied access and asked to try again."
To circumvent this blatant invasion of privacy you can (1) Have a 'talk' playing loudly where you make your call; (2) Use cotton wool padding in your cheeks; (3) Remove your false teeth; (4) Alter your voice electronically. All are intended to change audio spectrum of your voice.
They will not/cannot disable the feature on request. The voice database is accessible to police, et al.
HSBC pays out £28m over money-laundering claims - 2015
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/04/hsbc-fined-278m-over-money-laundering-claims
HSBC Judge Approves $1.9B Drug-Money Laundering Accord - 2013
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-02/hsbc-judge-approves-1-9b-drug-money-laundering-accord
HSBC became bank to drug cartels, pays big for lapses - 2012
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-hsbc-probe-idUSBRE8BA05M20121212
The list goes on. They are the dirtiest of the dirty. Serves them right. I'll lose no sleep over it.
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