HSBC was hit by a denial of service attack yesterday evening. Disgruntled customers took to Twitter to complain about being unable to access online services whilst the bank issued a statement, saying that a number of HSBC websites around the world had been affected.

"This denial of service attack did not affect any customer data, but did prevent customers using HSBC online services, including internet banking," the statement noted. "We are taking appropriate action, working hard to restore service. We are pleased to say that some sites are now back up and running. We are cooperating with the relevant authorities and will cooperate with other organisations that have been similarly affected by such criminal acts. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to our customers throughout the world."

The attack is believed to be the work of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters, which says it will target institutions until an anti-Islam YouTube movie trailer is taken offline. A posting on Pastebin.com earlier this week noted that it would hit bank websites on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, following a similar move last week.

UPDATE: As of 3am UK time on 19 October, all HSBC websites globally had returned to normal availability.

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