Ransomware Attack Cripples US Payment Platform BridgePay, Leaving Merchants Cash‑Only for Over 3 Days
A ransomware attack on BridgePay, a leading US electronic payment provider, knocked out its core systems on February 6, causing a nationwide outage that forced merchants to accept only cash for more than three days; the company involved federal agencies, reported no card‑data breach, and listed multiple services as down.
On February 6, BridgePay, a major U.S. electronic payment service provider, suffered a ransomware attack that took its critical systems offline, resulting in a nationwide disruption of card‑payment processing and forcing merchants to accept cash only.
BridgePay confirmed the incident was caused by ransomware, contacted federal law‑enforcement agencies including the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, and engaged external forensics and recovery teams. Preliminary forensics indicated no payment‑card data was exfiltrated; any accessed files were encrypted.
BleepingComputer reported that BridgePay was queried about the ransomware group involved, but the company has not disclosed the group’s name.
The outage impacted many merchants and institutions. A restaurant stated its credit‑card processor suffered a security breach and could not process card payments. Palm Bay, Florida, announced its online bill‑pay portal was unavailable and advised residents to pay in cash, by card, or by check. Other organizations such as Lightspeed Commerce, ThriftTrac, and the city of Freestone, Texas also reported service interruptions.
“Our third‑party credit‑card processing supplier BridgePay is experiencing a nationwide service outage. Consequently, the city’s online bill‑pay portal is currently unavailable, and we have no estimated recovery time,” – Palm Bay City Government.
BridgePay’s status page listed the following services as down:
BridgePay Gateway API (BridgeComm)
PayGuardian Cloud API
MyBridgePay virtual terminal and reporting system
Hosted payment pages
PathwayLink gateway and access portal
Early warning signs appeared at 03:29 when monitoring detected performance degradation in the “Gateway.Itstgate.com—virtual terminal, reporting, API” system, which later escalated to a full outage.
As of the latest update, BridgePay said recovery could take time and will proceed in a “secure and responsible” manner while the forensic investigation continues. The incident highlights a growing wave of ransomware targeting payment infrastructure, where any disruption of transaction channels can quickly trigger cascading effects on real‑world commerce.
Signed-in readers can open the original source through BestHub's protected redirect.
This article has been distilled and summarized from source material, then republished for learning and reference. If you believe it infringes your rights, please contactand we will review it promptly.
Black & White Path
We are the beacon of the cyber world, a stepping stone on the road to security.
How this landed with the community
Was this worth your time?
0 Comments
Thoughtful readers leave field notes, pushback, and hard-won operational detail here.