Credit cards (illustration)
Credit cards (illustration)Israel news photo: Arutz Sheva

A group of Saudi hackers published on Monday the credit card information, allegedly of some 400,000 Israelis, and said they are making use of the information they stole. Israel's banks later said the number is closer to 15,000 and assured the cardholders their cards would be frozen and they would be compensated for any damage.

The same group hacked the Israeli sports information website One on Monday evening and posted a file containing the details of some of the cardholders. Channel 10 News, which first reported on the hacking, said that the details published include names, email addresses and, worst of all - credit card numbers, including three-digit security codes.

The group, which defines itself as a Saudi branch of the Anonymous hackers group, said it intends to continue to publish details of more accounts at a later time.

People who tried to enter One on Monday evening were forwarded to the Saudi group’s website and to the file containing the information.

“We decided to give a new year’s gift to the world: the information of about 400,000 Israelis,” the hackers wrote.

The added, “What fun it is for us to see 400,000 people gathered in front of credit card companies and banks and complaining that their credit card information has been stolen. To see Israeli banks destroying 400,000 credit cards and producing new ones (so expensive, huh?). To see people buying things for themselves using the credit cards and damaging the credibility of Israeli credit cards around the world.”

Channel 10 reported that the Bank of Israel has launched an investigation into the hacking, in cooperation with Israel’s three major credit companies, which had been unaware of the hacking until it was reported on Channel 10.

A spokesperson for One confirmed one of the website’s servers had been hacked into, adding the breach was quickly repaired.