HSBC customers in website certificate scare

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Customers attempting to logon to HSBC's business website had a scare after being told the site's security certificate had expired.

UK business customers visiting www.ukbusiness.hsbc.com last week were greeted by a message explaining that the site's security certificate had expired on 4 March, before asking if they wanted to continue into the site.

A spokesperson for the company said the problem lasted for a day before being resolved, and that the affected certificate was only used to protect the security messages displayed on its site.

"The certificate is not managing any data encryption or security it just allows the security message to be displayed and allows us to change this message if we need to," the bank's spokesperson said.

Apparently, following the warning about the security certificate customers were then free to click through to their online banking services.

The spokesperson added: "Obviously we apologise to any customers who were concerned about the message they saw or inconvenienced in any way."

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