Paymentshield has confirmed that it is dealing with a “cyber incident” after brokers and customers have complained that they have been unable to access its web services.

Tweets from disgruntled customers suggest that the insurer’s website has been down for more than a week, since at least September 27.

A customer services agent responding to a policyholder on Twitter today apologised that she couldn’t “give out any indication of timescales for when we might be up and running”.

Brokers have taken to the Cherry forum to express their frustration at the service issues.

A spokesman for Paymentshield says: “We are sorry for the ongoing disruption to our quote and apply functionality, customer documentation portal, and websites. 

“Our parent company has confirmed they are investigating a cyber incident resulting in disruption across parts of the group IT estate.

“The incident was identified as a result of the routine comprehensive monitoring we have in place. 

“We immediately took all necessary action including taking impacted systems offline and have implemented our business continuity plans to minimise disruption to customers. 

“We are working to resolve this as a matter of urgency and can assure you this is an absolute priority for the business.”