Credit Card Glitch Shuts Down Consumer Purchases for Two Hours

A software malfunction brought Israeli businesses and consumers to their knees Thursday morning, leaving motorists unable to fill their tanks and grocery shoppers with unpaid grocery baskets full of food.

Anyone without cash was stuck.

Concerns that credit card security has been breached by a cyber attack were alleviated when the clearinghouse of credit card transactions discovered that a software update had blocked communications.

The blip also showed the shekel-dollar exchange rate as “zero.”

One business newspaper estimated that the breakdown cost companies nearly $2 million an hour.