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"Apocalypse" now: what to learn from hacking to bit

Bank Hapoalim's response to what appeared to be a hack into the popular payment app bit was accurate - and still incorrect.

How can it be?

Well, the point is not the theft technique, but the fact that online financial services have become the new armored vehicles that carry our money.

Tags

• BIT

• Bank Hapoalim

• Dominus

• Lewis

• application

• Fintech

Nir Kipnis

Monday, 11 October 2021, 08:32 Updated: 08:50

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Bank Hapoalim did not believe this was happening to them: the headlines about a security breach in the payment app bit (hereinafter: "bit"), seemed to them almost like a conspiracy: after all, what was stolen were numbers: ID number and credit card number - and not someone sawed their app bars and opened The safe.

To sum up the bank's response, it was something like: equally whoever steals your credit card can order a pizza, or buy new jeans - and what will they say then?

Is there a security breach in Domino's or Levi's?

of course not.

Truth be told, right!

Allegedly, the claim made to the bank's payment app could have been made to any other person who receives payment by credit card (this is basically what the app does: sell money-for-transfer against a credit charge).

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The app is safe, but the fact that the person who stole our credit card chose it as a destination is the one that should be a cause for concern (Photo: Yachz)

This is of course the truth, but not the whole truth - and Bank Hapoalim's response shows that even he may not have fully internalized the spirit of the period that his successful payments app led to.

Let us examine the claim that the thieves could have purchased with the help of their identity and credit details almost any other product or service. Why did they not do that? Mainly because any other theft was limited in amount and leaves a thread tip: When you order a pizza, you leave a shipping address. When you buy clothes or jewelry at the mall, there are people who can identify you, there is also a limit to the amount of goods you can carry in the mall.

That is, there are very few places where the money is in cash, in packages of NIS 3,600 (the maximum transfer amount per bit) and its theft will leave almost no trace.

In other words: the payment apps and some of the fintech services are the new armored vehicles that carry many millions from place to place - like the trains in the Wild West, which robbers used to raid.

Piles of cash have always been a big attraction for thieves: if you managed to escape with the loot, the chance of getting caught is only if you make a fatal mistake.

Take the money and run away.

The payments app is the new safe.

Makes our lives much more comfortable, but also a target for new robbers (Photo: ShutterStock)

The bank is not lying, this is the new reality that is deceiving

I do not suspect for a moment in the people who developed the app that they do not know it, but like any new field - some of the vulnerabilities that call for thieves are only discovered while working.

Bank Hapoalim was not wrong, easy and material did not lie, when it stated that there was no defect in the Beat app, but nevertheless it must take responsibility for the robbery of its largest branch - and not explain that it happened even though no defect was discovered in the alarm system. Imagine fintech services (at least some of them) as Brinks vehicles that travel at the speed of light from place to place.

Imagine the robbers riding on a keyboard, as those who follow them on vehicles flying at a similar speed. Just like in the old financial world: in 99% of cases, the method will work and the armored vehicle will reach its destination and be dismantled with the money bags accompanied by the stern look of the armed guards. The other percentage will be material for movies.

So Bank Hapoalim was right, but at least in my opinion it approached the affair from the wrong angle: its app on Kipak, really - not for nothing has it become the leading payment app in the economy, despite the great competition.

Not only is it not her level of security, but she has become the most coveted target for hacking by the person who stole our credit card: no pizza, no clothing store and no shoes.

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