Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Barclays security breach forces service to go off-line

01 Aug 2000, 12:00 am

Barclays bank suffered a security glitch with its internet banking service yesterday morning that gave a number of users access to the accounts of other customers. The bank was forced to close its on-line service and remove new security infrastructure that had been installed at the weekend.

The bank has more than 1.25 million on-line customers. Barclays’ internet operations were cited as one of the reasons behind its decision to close 171 branches earlier this year. However, security breaches such as yesterday’s are likely to be a blow to customer confidence. Fear of ineffective security is seen as one of the main barriers to the growth of e-business. This incident follows recent problems experienced by Abby National’s on-line banking service, Cahoot.com and Prudential’s Egg.com.

Barclays claims that less than 10 customers were affected, the problem occuring when two users logged in to the service at exactly the same time. According to the bank, no fraudulent transactions would have been possible. A spokeswoman for Barclays said:

“Barclays views this compromise of the security and integrity of the on-line service as unacceptable. The security of customer information is paramount. The new service will not be re-released until we are satisfied that the particular issue experienced has been rectified.”