Credit card payments broke down around Israel this morning. Shva (Automatic Bank Services Ltd.), which provides the communications between the various payment clearers for credit card transactions, experienced disruptions and prevented payments from being cleared.
The disruptions began at 8:00 this morning, after servers situated overseas of foreign companies that provide clearing services in Israel attempted to connect to the Shva payments system and encountered a breakdown in the approval of transactions in the credit card system.
As far as is known, no cyber attack has been identified, and the cause of the breakdown is apparently at one of the foreign companies that provide clearing services in Israel. The relevant agencies are nevertheless investigating the possibility of an attack.
Shva has for the time being suspended the activity of the relevant foreign companies, and the main clearing activity (over 80%) of the Israeli credit card companies Isracard, Max, and Cal, is running normally without disturbance. The activity of clearing giant Verifone is also running as usual.
Shva is working to identify and fix the breakdown in the overseas connection, and the problem is expected to be solved this morning.
Meanwhile, the internal Israeli clearing system is operating normally. The local credit card companies input transactions at a rate of about 5,000 a minute, and these are duly being cleared. There may, however, be disruptions at businesses that clear transactions via overseas providers.
Shva stated in response to the report: "The national credit card payments system is working normally and processing thousands of transactions per minute. The company has identified and is dealing with connection difficulties of providers connected via Internet from overseas to the payments system."
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on October 29, 2024.
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