DDoS Cyberattack Temporarily Disrupts Credit Card Payments Across Israel

On Sunday, an Israeli clearing company experienced a cyberattack, causing a temporary outage that left some people unable to use their credit cards in stores for several hours.

This incident follows a similar cyberattack less than two weeks prior, which also disrupted another credit services provider for a few hours. In Sunday’s attack, a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack targeted Hyp, a payment solutions company whose services are widely used in Israel, including by the Maccabi health fund, taxi service Gett, food delivery app Wolt, and public transportation payment systems like Rav Kav Online and Hop-On.

Hyp’s Credit Guard division, a key part of the company’s operations, confirmed it was specifically targeted in this sophisticated attack. In a public statement, the company outlined that the attackers attempted to breach its security defenses. However, immediate countermeasures were taken to contain the threat. Credit Guard reported successfully blocking the attack, quickly restoring operations, and ensuring that no client data was compromised.

The incident had a broader impact, temporarily disrupting the functionality of Bit, a widely used digital payment app operated by Bank Hapoalim, similar to Venmo in the U.S. This led to intermittent service issues for Bit users who depend on the app for real-time transactions.

The attack mirrors one that targeted Israel’s Automated Bank Services (ABS) just a month ago. In that instance, a DDoS attack overwhelmed ABS systems, causing transaction processing delays for multiple organizations connected to its online network. This disruption resulted in backlogs for businesses and consumers relying on ABS services.

Currently, the identities and motives of the attackers remain unknown in both incidents. Both companies continue to work with cybersecurity experts to investigate, strengthen their defenses, and prevent similar incidents in the future.