If you’re a DBS/POSB user who frequently uses the app, the past one or two days must’ve been uncomfortable for you.
After all, nothing’s more embarrassing (or worrying) than standing in front of the counter, apologising while your app keeps showing, The digital service is currently not available, right?
Coined a “serious” outage with “broad and material impact” by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), here are 10 facts about the massive disruption you need to know.
When It Started
On 23 Nov 2021, at around 10am, DBS and POSB users discovered that they can’t access the bank’s internet and mobile banking services.
Attempts to access the POSB digital banking app only shows the notification “The digital service is currently unavailable” for one of our writers.
Not a comfortable message to see especially when you need it for something urgent such as trying to use PayNow at the nearby mamak store, trying to transfer money to your friends, and more.
A Massive Disruption
People mostly had issues with mobile banking, online banking and mobile logins.
A quick search through the comments section revealed several sad stories:
“Was with a date today and couldn’t make payment to transfer to debit card because dbs was down. So she had to pay. Paisey to max leh. How like that. Now I single again”
“Can’t make funds transfer!!!!!!!”
“Cannot even order foodpanda…dbs card failed…”
To showcase how much we relied on the bank’s digital service, and how massive the disruption was, this Facebook user puts it best:
“I can’t do bank transfer, can’t top up my cashcard to drive off the carpark gantry, did not carry enough cash with me for my dinner. So disappointing and caused so much inconvenience.”
NETS Also Affected
It wasn’t just DBS services that were unavailable; NETS was similarly impacted as well.
In a Facebook post on 23 Nov at 1:17pm, NETS informed customers that the eNETS Debit service for DBS customers was temporarily unavailable.
No transactions are able to be made, they said.
They promised to work closely with DBS to resolve the issue and apologised for the inconvenience caused.
They also promised to provide updates on their website and Facebook page as soon as possible.
A Persistent Breakdown
No one would’ve expected the service to be down for days. Hours, maybe but an entire day, or two? Unacceptable.
Unfortunately, that was what happened.
Downdetector is the site all users go to whenever they suffer a disruption on any service, and an outage in DBS is no different.
At 2:40pm on 23 Nov, Downdetector showed a peak in the number of reports about the outage, numbering at 597.
At 9:25pm in the evening, people were still having issues with the app, with 376 reports.
DBS: Services Has Been Restored
At 8:15am on 24 Nov 2021, DBS announced that all of its digital services has been restored as of 2am.
Unfortunately, it seems that wasn’t the case for some users.
And by some, I mean a significant number of users.
At around 10am, the number of reports made on Downdetector hit 692, and it stayed high until 12pm where it stabilised within the two-hundred region.
It was clear, then, that the problem wasn’t fixed.
And DBS Acknowledged That
At around 10:50am on 24 Nov 2021, DBS updated the Facebook post to acknowledge issues with its digital services.
“Unfortunately, yesterday’s digital banking issue has recurred and this has affected our services.
“We know this has affected many of our customers, and we are doing our best to resolve the situation. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
7. Fully-Resolved
On 24 Nov 2021 at 10:35pm, DBS took to its Facebook page to announce the full restoration of its digital banking services.
This time, it seems to be the real deal as Downdetector showed a drastic reduction of reports being made on 25 Nov 2021.
The bank promises that it’ll monitor the situation closely.
DBS Country Head Apologises On Video
When an essential service breaks down for two days, you know it’s massive.
DBS understands that, which is why Shee Tse Koon, the DBS country head for Singapore, took to Facebook to apologise to members of the public.
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He explained that the disruption was caused by faulty control access servers.
These servers are part of the bank’s security system and handle the verification of log-in and payments through the use of OTP, biometrics and authentication tokens.
This is why users had such a hard time logging in, he said.
Other than an apology, Mr Shee also wants to assure customers that their money and deposits are safe; and that the bank is trying its best to restore digital services.
You can hear his apology in full below:
MAS Taking This Incident Seriously
For people wondering if there’ll be any backlash for DBS after causing so much trouble, there is.
Calling it DBS’s “worst outage in a decade”, MAS says it is considering supervisory action against the bank.
“This is a serious disruption and MAS expects DBS to conduct a thorough investigation to identify the root causes and implement the necessary remedial measures.”
Any supervisory action will be considered after the investigation, MAS added.
MAS also emphasised that financial institutions should have “systems and processes” to ensure that essential services are available constantly to customers.
Under MAS regulations, non-scheduled downtime for important systems that affect customer services should not exceed four hours in a twelve-year period.
Theories
With people’s penchant for spreading fake news, you’ll know there’ll be a few “conspiracy theories” regarding the outage.
One popular theory was, of course, that the bank’s digital service was hacked.
Another theory pointed out that the outage might be linked to the “sale of treasury bonds by Myanmar’s National Unity Government”.
The bank came out and clarified that it wasn’t true.
Update 3:30PM, 24 Nov
There have been rumours that DBS’ digibanking service disruption is linked to the sale of treasury bonds by Myanmar’s National Unity Government. There is no truth to this. DBS has not sold any such bonds.— DBS Bank (@dbsbank) November 24, 2021
On a side note, DBS suffered a massive outage back in 2010 and it was found out that the outage was caused by an IBM engineer who used “outdated processes” during a “routine maintenance job”.
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Feature Image: Tang Yan Song / Shutterstock.com + TY Lim / Shutterstock.com