On February 6, 2026, BridgePay Network Solutions, a major U.S. payment gateway provider, confirmed a ransomware attack that caused widespread disruption across merchants nationwide. Core services—including virtual terminals, APIs, hosted payment pages, and reporting tools—were rendered inaccessible, forcing businesses to revert to cash-only operations.
For CISOs, SOC analysts, fintech managers, and IT professionals, this incident highlights the increasing vulnerability of critical payment infrastructure to ransomware. In this article, we examine the attack timeline, impacted services, security implications, best practices for ransomware preparedness, and lessons for enterprise payment operations.
Timeline of the Incident
- Early Morning, Feb 6, 2026 (3:29 a.m. EST)
- Merchants reported degraded performance in the Gateway.Itstgate.com virtual terminal, reporting systems, and API endpoints.
- First Status Update (5:48 a.m. EST)
- BridgePay acknowledged system downtime, with no estimated restoration time.
- Cybersecurity Incident Confirmation (6:34 a.m. EST)
- Internal teams, external cybersecurity experts, and the FBI were engaged for investigation.
- Ongoing Assessment (12:00 p.m. EST)
- Collaboration with the U.S. Secret Service forensic team and cybersecurity professionals continued, with systems remaining offline.
- Ransomware Identification (7:08 p.m. EST, Feb 7, 2026)
- Forensic analysis confirmed ransomware as the cause.
- Initial findings indicated no payment card data was compromised; encrypted files did not show evidence of usable data exposure.
Impact on Merchants and Services
The ransomware attack crippled multiple BridgePay core services, including:
- BridgePay Gateway API (BridgeComm)
- PayGuardian Cloud API
- MyBridgePay virtual terminal and reporting
- Hosted payment pages
- PathwayLink gateway and boarding portals
Real-world effects included:
- Restaurants and retail stores resorted to cash-only payments.
- Florida’s City of Palm Bay reported online billing portal outages, urging in-person payments.
- Other affected organizations included Lightspeed Commerce, ThriftTrac, and the City of Frisco, Texas.
BridgePay emphasized prioritizing secure restoration over speed, ensuring no immediate threats to integrators or merchant data while investigating the ransomware group responsible.
Security Implications
This incident underscores the rising threat of ransomware targeting financial and payment infrastructures:
- Even temporary outages can halt real-world commerce, impacting thousands of businesses.
- Encryption-only attacks, like this one, demonstrate that attackers can disrupt services without exfiltrating sensitive data.
- Delayed recovery timelines and uncertainty amplify operational risk for merchants dependent on centralized payment gateways.
Enterprises relying on cloud-based or third-party payment systems should consider the cascading risks of downtime, including:
- Loss of revenue during outages
- Reputational impact from service interruptions
- Compliance and audit complications if payments cannot be processed reliably
Ransomware Response Measures
BridgePay’s response provides a security playbook for critical infrastructure:
- Immediate incident identification
- Monitoring systems detected abnormal activity and degraded performance.
- Engaging federal authorities
- Collaboration with the FBI and U.S. Secret Service ensured proper forensic handling and minimized escalation risks.
- Leveraging cybersecurity and recovery specialists
- Forensic and remediation teams helped assess encryption impact, validate system integrity, and begin recovery planning.
- Prioritizing customer protection
- Ensuring merchant data remained uncompromised, while systematically restoring critical services.
Lessons Learned for Enterprises
- Ransomware Preparedness is Critical
- Even encryption-only attacks can halt operations; maintain offline backups and tested recovery protocols.
- Redundancy and Multi-Gateway Strategy
- Businesses relying solely on one payment processor face high operational risk. Consider backup payment processors or contingency plans.
- Monitoring and Early Detection
- Implement real-time monitoring of payment APIs and gateway performance to detect anomalies early.
- Incident Response Playbooks
- Predefine communication plans with merchants, regulators, and law enforcement for rapid coordination.
- Supply Chain Risk Awareness
- Third-party payment services are a critical supply chain component; integrate them into enterprise risk assessments.
Industry Context
Ransomware attacks against financial infrastructure have been rising globally. In 2025, MITRE reported a 300% increase in ransomware targeting payment systems and fintech platforms, with attackers often exploiting weak API authentication, unpatched gateways, or third-party integrations.
The BridgePay case is notable because:
- No sensitive cardholder data was exfiltrated
- The attack was service-disruptive rather than data-theft-centric
- Recovery may be prolonged due to the need for forensic validation and secure restoration
This demonstrates a trend toward disruption-focused ransomware, which can have immediate operational consequences for millions of users.
Recommendations for Merchants
- Maintain offline payment capabilities (cash, check, backup payment processors)
- Validate that backup gateways and APIs are configured and tested
- Implement incident communication plans for customers and staff
- Regularly update and patch integrations with payment gateways
- Include third-party payment providers in business continuity and disaster recovery planning
Conclusion
The BridgePay ransomware attack serves as a stark reminder: payment gateways are critical infrastructure. Even without data exfiltration, outages can halt commerce nationwide, disrupt city services, and impact enterprises reliant on a single provider.
Enterprises and merchants should treat payment infrastructure as part of their critical security and business continuity planning, incorporating:
- Redundancy
- Incident response playbooks
- Offline operational strategies
- Close collaboration with service providers
With ransomware threats escalating, proactive preparation is the only way to minimize operational and financial risk.
