Friday 29 January 2016 11:40 am

HSBC down: Bank suffers online banking outage (again) after group targeted by cyber attackers

Well this is embarrassing.

HSBC's online banking services are suffering from yet another outage – and it looks like it's down to a cyber attack on the bank.

Customers complained this morning that they could not access their accounts online, with many complaining that the outage came just as their first pay day since Christmas arrived.

The bank tweeted: "HSBC UK internet banking was attacked this morning. We successfully defended our systems.

It added: "We are working hard to restore services, and normal service is now being resumed. We apologise for any inconvenience."

HSBC UK internet banking was attacked this morning. We successfully defended our systems. 1/2

— HSBC UK (@HSBC_UK) January 29, 2016

We are working hard to restore services, and normal service is now being resumed. We apologise for any inconvenience. 2/2

— HSBC UK (@HSBC_UK) January 29, 2016

In a message on its website, HSBC added: "We'd like to apologise to all our customers for Online Banking being unavailable. We know how inconvenient this is and we are doing everything we can to rectify the problem. Please try later."

It comes just weeks after the last outage, which lasted two days.

Unsurprisingly customers are not too impressed, particularly as this latest outage comes as hundreds of thousands of people rush to file their self-assessment tax forms online.

@HSBC_UK Twice in one month I am unable to access my online account due your site being down, get it together pleeeease!!

— Stephen Sumner 📈 (@MrStephenSumner) January 29, 2016

@HSBC_UK_Help It has been out all day so far. Frustrating… Do you have any idea when customers can log back in please?

— Nikki de Villiers 🩵 (@TheWordWell) January 29, 2016