Our Operations team is aware of the sporadic service outages that started occurring this morning and working to keep our service available while they resolve the issue. Latest details we have from them are that it seems to be a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack on our system -- i.e., a multitude of outside systems flooding our server with so many bogus Web page requests that nobody else's legit requests can get through -- which our usual DDoS countermeasures are not handling very well. More details to follow here as they're reported to us. Thanks to everyone for your patience and understanding while we work on solving the problem.

It now appears our system came under DDoS attack as a result of "hacktivist" vigilante activity against a particular merchant. We have now suspended that merchant's account for violating our Terms of Service, which should lift the blockade of traffic to our servers by the time you read this. The security of our system was never at any risk; it was basically the Web equivalent of slamming your phone lines with so many prank calls that nobody else can get through. Thanks to everyone for your patience, with our apologies for the inconvenience.