Internet provider Xtra was this afternoon receiving denial-of-service types levels of data traffic to its mail servers, causing frustrating delays for customers waiting on incoming email messages.
Xtra, the internet arm of Telecom and the country's largest internet provider, said huge amounts of data were being sentfrom "several international sources", putting strain on Xtra's email infrastructure.
The problem seems to be with Xtra's "POP" mail server which manages incoming mail.
While users were able to send email without a problem, email sent to Xtra users from overseas sources has been arriving late or not at all. But the problem appears also to be affecting local email sent to users with Xtra email addresses.
Several internet users contacted the Herald today concerned that messages sent to Xtra customers on their bulk mailing lists had been bounced back.
Xtra spokeswoman Anna Kermode, said abnormally high data traffic volumes were still being received. Technicians were working to determine whether the traffic was being sent maliciously.
"We're not sure if it's a denial of service attack or just excessive volumes," she said.
A denial of service attack is a means of limiting the functionality of a computer network, often by flooding an internet provider's server with a vast number of data "packets".
The source of the attack has to be pinpointed for the flow of rubbish traffic to be cut off without blocking innocent traffic indiscriminately. Xtra email users face further delays in receiving emails this evening as the servers try to cope with a large backlog of incoming emails. Xtra is updating the situation on their website.
