WestPac’s website crashed this morning leaving potentially thousands of customers stranded and unable to access their accounts.Banking customers wishing to log on to their Westpac account were unable to do so.
“We are currently experiencing difficulties with our website. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.”
This is the message the bank’s online customers were met with when attempting to log on this morning, although Westpac, when contacted by Smarthouse, were unaware of any online issues.
“We have no record of any website issues at our end,” a Westpac spokesperson said.
However, the issues were confirmed on Twitter, with one customer of the bank tweeting 580 minutes ago : “Arrggghhh – #Westpac internet banking site is down.” However, it now appears to be back in action and it is not known how many users were affected.
This is the second time in a month that Westpac has experienced serious IT issues, blaming an air-conditioning failure for a total collapse of its online network which left thousands without banking access in the beginning of May last.
It also comes in the wake of several other major banks including WestPac, NAB and St George CBA being forced to cancel credit cards over the weekend following a data breach at a merchant on Friday.
Commonwealth Bank were among those engaging in mass cancellations which involved some 8000 Visa and MasterCard following a discovery of a fraud breach, hitting retail transactions which were unable to be processed due to card failures.
However, the bank failed to say the precise location of the breach although did confirm customer cards are being reissued “as a matter of priority.”
CBA used SMS, e-mail and letters to tell customers of the potential breach.
