Hackers steal Israeli credit card numbers

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Computer hackers published details of thousands of active Israeli credit cards after breaking into Israeli websites, the chief executive of Israel's largest card company said Tuesday.

Dov Kotler, CEO of Isracard, a unit of Bank Hapoalim, said in a statement that a file containing 400,000 Israeli credit card numbers had appeared on the Internet but the company found that most were incorrect or invalid.

Israeli media reports said a Saudi-based group had hacked into several websites in Israel to cull the numbers.

Kotler said Isracard had analyzed the information and found that only some 14,000 of the credit card numbers listed by the hackers were valid, including 6,600 issued by his company.

Some of the stolen card numbers were used in Internet purchases but Kotler said Isracard had blocked further transactions and its affected clients would be reimbursed.

He said there were some 7 million active cards in the Israeli economy.

(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by David Holmes)