The English bank Tesco was forced to stop all online transactions on Sunday, after thousands of its customers saw money disappearing from their accounts over the weekend. In a statement, the bank said that emergency measures are being implemented after it became clear that 136,000 accounts are directly exposed to criminal activity online. Speaking on the ITV channel, Tesco Bank CEO Benny Higgins said that about 40,000 of those accounts showed signs of “suspicious transactions»”, while 20,000 customers actually saw money disappear from their accounts.
Higgins said the bank knows exactly how the accounts were compromised - saying it was a very systematic attack - but would not elaborate on how the attack worked, saying it could jeopardise the criminal investigation into the breaches. Tesco is certainly not the first financial institution to be targeted by hackers, but this time the scale of the attack is remarkable as compromising tens of thousands of accounts at once requires a very carefully coordinated effort.
Tesco Bank says it will compensate its customers from Tuesday afternoon - that is, today!
Customers will be able to use their debit cards for in-store purchases and ATM withdrawals, but all online transactions will be blocked. Tesco Bank says it will compensate customers who lost money on Tuesday afternoon, but some angry customers are taking to Twitter about the delayed response to their requests and concerns. Meanwhile, Higgins says the bank is working hard to get the compromised accounts back up and running as soon as possible!
