Nationwide BS Online problems

ricky101

Hi,


Interested to know if anyone else has problems with logging on to the Nationwides online banking service.


Seem to get repeated problems, but when we contact them , they always make out its our pc /system , yet days later it all works normally again.


Today we have a clear error on their part, when we enter the SMS one time code its says it expired as its over 10 mins since it was sent, yet its just a few seconds between it being initiated and entered.


Apart from the inconvenience of not being able to log on, does make us wonder about the resilience and security of their IT system and if we should look elsewhere.

[Deleted User]

No issues here

Yorkshire_Pud

No issues here been on a few times today App and desktop sites.

born_again

ricky101 wrote: »

Hi,

Today we have a clear error on their part, when we enter the SMS one time code its says it expired as its over 10 mins since it was sent, yet its just a few seconds between it being initiated and entered.

Wonder if it's a GMT - BST issue?

Your system on the right time?

ricky101

born_again wrote: »

Wonder if it's a GMT - BST issue?

Your system on the right time?

Doh, spot on !



The laptop clock was 11 mins fast, so that would account for it telling them it was after their 10min usage window .


cheers

born_again

ricky101 wrote: »

Doh, spot on !



The laptop clock was 11 mins fast, so that would account for it telling them it was after their 10min usage window .


cheers

Strange :T

pafpcg

ricky101 wrote: »

Doh, spot on !

The laptop clock was 11 mins fast, so that would account for it telling them it was after their 10min usage window

Oh dear! This looked so weird, it just couldn't be true! Surely, the Nationwide computer system would use its own internal timeclock to measure when the text message was sent and then when the response was received.

So, having once logged-in successfully with the PC set to the correct time to check that the Nationwide system was working, I then tried to simulate the problem by logging-in having set the timeclock forward by an hour - sure enough, the login was rejected because more than 10 minutes had elapsed! Setting the timeclock back by several hours allowed the login to be successful. However, when I shifted the timeclock back by an hour and then waited 10 minutes before entering the text code, it failed with the message that there was a "technical problem". OK, so maybe the "technical problem" blocks the obvious potential gap in security, but it does seem odd to rely on the accuracy of the local timeclock.

ricky101

Yes, glad you proved the point also !


We originally missed the fact that the PC clock was somehow (?) those few minutes fast , which does prove the SMS code must go back to them with our PCs timestamp, so causing the apparent error.