A bank official here has rejected rumors claiming that hackers had caused a technical glitch at ATMs in the city. The problem was a result of an overload of transactions on Thursday, said Talat Hafiz, secretary general of the committee on banking awareness and media for Saudi banks. “The rumors that appeared on Twitter and Facebook saying that the ATMs in Riyadh have been hacked are not true. What happened was a technical glitch due to intensive processing of transactions. Besides, the glitch was fixed in 10 minutes,” the official was reported as saying by Al-Hayat Arabic newspaper. The problem with the system was because of the beginning of the spring break and the withdrawal of salaries. The glitch was fixed immediately and all ATMs were now working well, the bank official concluded. Social networking sites claimed that some hackers caused the technical glitch, sending a wave of fear through the banking community and among thousands of the clients. The fears were exacerbated by recent news reports claiming that some Israeli hackers were targeting Saudi financial institutions and were going to post thousands of credit card numbers online; and by the Ministry of Interior's announcement this week warning citizens and expatriates from giving their passwords or ATM card numbers to unknown persons over the phone. The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) denied this week any hacking attempts on its website saying that systems are working and are protected by advanced security systems. “Media reports about any hacking of the Tadawul website or any associated degradation of the website performance are incorrect,” a statement issued by Tadawul said.
