10:15 pm, April 19, 2011
AUTOTRADER.co.uk has been the subject of a ‘malicious third-party attack’ the online car selling site has announced.
A statement issued today reads: ‘Autotrader.co.uk website has been subject to a malicious third-party attack which has prevented normal operational services from being delivered. Anyone visiting the site during this attack would have found that Autotrader.co.uk was either intermittently unavailable or extremely slow.
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‘The technical support team is working around the clock to restore services and minimise the impact of similar attacks in the future. Some visitors may still experience difficulty accessing the site today while we resolve the remaining problems.’
It’s not the first time Autotrader.co.uk has been the subject of malicious attacks. In September last year, Car Dealer reported that dealers using the site were experiencing ‘phishing’ emails from conmen.
However, in this latest round of hacking, Autotrader.co.uk is adamant that there is ‘no evidence to suggest that any customer data has been lost as a result of the attack and there are no known risks to consumers visiting the site during this time.’
