Kiwibank customers are experiencing ongoing issues with the bank's service. Photo / 123RF
Kiwibank customers continue to experience problems with the bank's online services.
Customers this morning took to Facebook to express frustration at the situation, which lasted almost a week.
"All I wanted to do is go get some chicken & chips from Pak'nSave and I bloody can't because I can't transfer my money to get it," one customer complained on Facebook.
The customer went on to urge the bank to sort out the issue because it was making it difficult to plan ahead of transferring money.
A Facebook message from Kiwibank this morning confirmed that there were still problems with the service.
"We are experiencing intermittent issues with access to internet banking, our app, and phone banking which we are working urgently to fix," a Kiwibank spokesperson said today.
"There are no current issues with payments, ATMs or cards. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this is causing our customers and will continue to post updates via our social channels."
Another frustrated customer emailed into the Herald: "I am struggling because I can't even get into my bank app or online to transfer money to buy food and shopping today. How else am I suppose to do when you can't even transfer your own money just to buy food for the day, very frustrating and stressful. I'll need to change banks but I can't I don't have ID and can't do it because post office isn't open, stressful life."
Some users are also experiencing issues with the Inland Revenue Department website today.
An IRD spokesman said this morning: "There is some intermittency but myIR is working for customers with the log-in page link."
The spokesman wouldn't confirm the Herald's question about a possibly DDoS attack.
"I haven't had any notification of that. I'll let you know if I do. I haven't heard anything back so assuming it is not a cyber attack."
The IRD later confirmed there was a problem their internet service provider, but wouldn't disclose who it was.
"The problem is with the internet service provider for some of our services. Our reports are that the IR website is opening for customers most of the time but it's not consistent. We understand our provider is working to mitigate and resolve the situation. Access to myIR is okay for customers with the log-in page link."
A cyber attack on 8 September knocked a number of major organisation's websites.
Kiwibank, ANZ, NZ Post and MetService. NZ Police all acknowledged that their sites were slow at times.
All the sites eventually came back online, but they continued to drop out in the days that followed.
Those issues also continued today for MetService, with users reporting issues with the service again today.
CERT NZ posted a statement last week attributing the outages to a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack.
Experts have told the Herald that the attacks could be a result of New Zealand's lockdown conditions that have been well reported around the world.
"It would seem that because our situation in level 4 is as well known throughout the world, and that we are relying more on our digital services, particularly with banking, it makes sense for cyber-criminals to target those services - presumably believe that they could demand a higher ransom or that a ransom might be more forthcoming," AUT senior lecturer in software engineering Ken Johnson told the Herald.
Other experts have also suggested that historical under-investment in cyber security has made New Zealand an easier target for hackers.
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