Foreign exchange firm Travelex has taken its systems offline after becoming the victim of a cyberattack.
A reported software virus began attacking the firm’s website on New Year’s Eve.
The company responded by taking down and suspending its online systems, a move it said would protect customer data and prevent further spread of the virus.
The firm said it now has IT specialists and external cybersecurity professionals working to isolate the virus and return its systems online.
Details about the virus have not been announced, but the firm said it believes no personal data has been compromised.
“We apologise to all our customers for any inconvenience caused as a result,” said Travelex boss Tony D’Souza.
“We are doing all we can to restore our full services as soon as possible.”
The firm continues to carry out transactions manually, providing foreign-exchange services over the counter in its branches.
At the time of writing, the Travelex website is still down.
As well as operating its own website, the firm is an IT partner for companies including Tesco Bank, which faced issues helping its foreign money customers.
On Twitter, Tesco Bank’s customer service account explained to customers that Travelex administers and manages its foreign currency exchanges, and as a result its services had been affected.
Hi there, we’re unable to help with Travel Money queries here as our Travel Money is administered and managed by Travelex. If you’d like to discuss this, you can reach the Travel Money Team at [email protected], or on 0345 366 0103 (24/7). I hope this helps! – Brogan
— Tesco Bank Help (@tescobankhelp) January 2, 2020
At the time of writing, Tesco Bank’s travel money page stated that the service was temporarily unavailable.
“We have over 360 in-store Tesco Travel Money bureaux that are open as normal and hold stock for our top currencies,” the page read.
“We recommend that you contact them first to check the availability of the currency that you are interested in.”
In 2018, the details of 17,000 Tesco Bank customers were leaked by Travelex, including full names, emails, phone numbers and partial bank details.
Travelex said at the time that the leak had been a case of ‘human error’ rather than a cyberattack.