BridgePay: Cyberattack Sparks Payment Platform Outage

A prominent U.S. payment gateway and solutions provider has reported a ransomware attack that has caused significant disruptions to key systems, resulting in a widespread outage impacting various services.

The disruption began on Friday and rapidly spread nationwide, affecting multiple services within BridgePay’s platform.

Ransomware Incident Confirmed Shortly After Outage

BridgePay Network Solutions officially confirmed on Friday that the disruption to its payment gateway was the result of a ransomware attack.

In a statement released on Feb. 6, the company revealed that it has enlisted the help of federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and U.S. Secret Service, as well as external forensic and recovery teams.

The company stated, “Preliminary forensic analysis indicates that there has been no compromise of payment card data,” and assured that any accessed files were encrypted, with no evidence of any exposed usable data.

BleepingComputer reached out to BridgePay for information regarding the ransomware group responsible, but the company has not yet disclosed this information.

Merchants Forced to Accept Cash Payments Only

Simultaneously with BridgePay’s announcement of the incident, various U.S. merchants and organizations informed customers that they could only accept cash payments due to a widespread card-processing outage.

One restaurant explained that its “credit card processing provider experienced a cybersecurity breach,” leading to a nationwide unavailability of card payments.

The government of Palm Bay, Florida made the following announcement:

“BridgePay Network Solutions, our third-party credit card processing provider, is experiencing a nationwide service disruption. Consequently, the City’s online billing payment portal is currently inaccessible. We do not have an estimated timeline for restoration.”

As a result, the city government suggested that customers could make utility payments in person with cash, card, or check, or by calling the office in limited circumstances.

Other organizations such as Lightspeed Commerce, ThriftTrac, and the City of Frisco, Texas also reported service disruptions due to the BridgePay incident.

Impact on Payment Gateway Services

BridgePay’s status page displayed significant outages across core production systems, including:

• BridgePay Gateway API (BridgeComm)
• PayGuardian Cloud API
• MyBridgePay virtual terminal and reporting
• Hosted payment pages
• PathwayLink gateway and boarding portals

Early indications of trouble emerged around 3:29 a.m. when monitoring identified degraded performance across multiple services, starting with the “Gateway.Itstgate.com – virtual terminal, reporting, API” systems.

The intermittent service degradation eventually led to a complete system outage.

Within hours, the company revealed that the incident was related to cybersecurity issues, later confirming it as a ransomware attack.

The wide-ranging impact on systems suggests extensive disruption for merchants and payment integrators reliant on the platform for card processing.

As of the most recent update, BridgePay stated that recovery efforts could be time-consuming and are being managed “securely and responsibly” while the company continues its forensic investigation.

This incident contributes to a growing trend of ransomware attacks targeting payment infrastructure, where outages can swiftly affect real-world commerce when transaction processing is disrupted.