Cyberattack Exposes 20,000 Israeli Credit Card Numbers and Details About Users

The credit card details of more than 20,000 Israelis were exposed on the Internet in two waves by a hacker or team of hackers.

Some Israeli officials described the release of the information as cyberterrorism. Others said that it was too early to define the nature of the attack because there was still no way yet to confirm who did it.

The details of 400,000 credit card holders had been posted online by a hacker identifying himself as a 19-year-old from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who used the Web name 0xOmar. But the three credit card companies that were affected said that many of the card numbers and details had been listed multiple times and that some were incorrect.

The Bank of Israel’s Banking Supervision Department said in a statement that about 15,000 active accounts had been exposed.

A second list of about 11,000 credit cards and details about the accounts was posted online, along with e-mail addresses, passwords and other personal information. The credit card companies reported that only about 6,000 of those accounts were active.

The credit card companies responded swiftly, contacting the holders of the exposed cards and blocking them from being used on the Internet or by telephone. The Banking Supervision Department said that customers would not be responsible for the fraudulent use of their cards, and officials said that any financial damage would be negligible.

The credit card companies had called on the government to help in protecting credit card information.

More information source:The New York Times