One of Europe's biggest secure online payment processing firms, Worldpay, has suffered a computer attack on its systems which has left up to 28,000 customers without a service.
Worldpay, which is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, said it identified the "orchestrated" attack by a third party within a minute of its occurrence. It has resolved some of the problems caused, but is still attempting to restore full services to customers. The company estimates it provides a service to around 28,000 companies and individuals who trade online.
Companies or merchants who wish to process credit and debit card payments securely online use the services of firms such as Worldpay and Paypal.
The majority of Worldpay customers are based in Britain and Europe. It claims 40 per cent of small and medium enterprise business in Britain and has a significant presence in Ireland.
A spokesman for Worldpay told ireland.comthat it was "a regrettable consequence" of today's attack that customers had been unable to access its services.
The problem is understood to be a so-called 'denial of service' attack, whereby a computer system and its communications are deliberately blocked or flooded with information to prevent normal operations. Such an attack would require significant resources and knowledge of the computer systems involved.
"We are not there yet, but we're getting there," the Worldpay spokesman said. He said the problem had obviously caused Worldpay and its customers "a great deal of inconvenience" and he apologised for this. However, he said the company's customer service agents were fully briefed on the problem and that it had also made email contact with customers, where possible, several times today to update them on the problem.
It is not yet clear where the third-party attack originated, the Worldpay spokesman said.