Every Bermuda internet user may have been impacted by problems in accessing some web pages, according to a Fort Knox e-mail to their customers yesterday.

Logic also reported that there had been an attempted hacking, telling customers they have now dealt with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

In computing, a denial-of-service (DoS) or distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack has been described as an attempt to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users.

DDoS attacks vary in their methodology, but generally they consist of efforts to temporarily or indefinitely interrupt or suspend services of a host connected to the internet. This includes e-mail and browsing websites and affects both residential and business customers. Smartphone browsers are also affected.

Logic chief executive officer Vicki Coelho said: “This is what occurred: at 10.10 Atlantic Standard Time (AST) Logic was aware of an intermittent issues with our core National Domain Name Servers (DNS).

“This issue caused sporadic issues with loading websites and other web-based usage.” The root DNS servers have been described as essential to the function of the internet, as most internet services, such as the World Wide Web and electronic-mail, are based on domain names.

The DNS servers are potential points of failure for the entire internet, experts say. For this reason, multiple root servers, which in layman’s terms are address books, are distributed worldwide.

Ms Coelho said at 11.41 AST the DNS issue had been resolved, and all services should be restored to normal.

It has been reported that cell service providers are currently working to resolve the disruptions.

Fort Knox has stated that the inability to access some web pages is the result of a DNS difficulty in resolving some domain names.

According to the email that customers received yesterday: “This means that the national address book for websites is failing and you may be affected by it. Every user in Bermuda may be affected by it, and all telecommunications carriers will be working cohesively to resolve the issue.”

A Fort Knox spokesman Troy Symonds said: “I can confirm that it was a DNS problem. Our techs advised me earlier today [Wednesday] and we — all customers — were experiencing this problem. We received confirmation from Logic that one of the three Domain Name Servers that Bermuda operates were experiencing a problem.

“We believe that it has been resolved now.”