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Poland Paralyzed? Payment Terminal Outage Caused Chaos, but It’s Not a Cyberattack!
Published: 00:00 09/15/2025
Incydenty
Saturday Chaos in Stores: Payment Terminal Outage in Poland
Imagine standing in a checkout line with a full shopping cart, and the payment terminal just makes a sad "transaction denied" sound. That's exactly what happened in Poland on Saturday, September 13, when a widespread payment terminal outage caused chaos in many stores. The issues affected both card payments and the popular BLIK system.
The problems were caused by one of the country's largest payment operators, the company eService. Reports of difficulties came in from various cities and customers of different banks, only adding to the confusion. Desperate shoppers rushed to social media and sites like Downdetector to check if the problem was just theirs or something more widespread.
Widespread Fear of a Cyberattack, but it was "Just" an Outage
In an era of ubiquitous cyber threats, the first thought that comes to mind during such an outage is a cyberattack. Luckily, this time we can breathe a sigh of relief. As assured by Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski, current analyses do not indicate that the outage was a result of an external attack. The problem was technical, and after a few hours, the operator resolved it.
This situation highlights how dependent we are on digital payment systems. All it takes is for one of them to go down, and our everyday, cashless world comes to a standstill.
Lessons for the Future
While this incident was not a cyberattack, it should serve as a valuable lesson for both companies and consumers. For payment operators, it's a signal to invest in even more resilient and redundant systems. For us, it's a reminder that it's always a good idea to have some cash in your wallet… just in case.
Unfortunately, this wasn't an isolated incident – two weeks later, a PayTel terminal outage once again paralyzed payments in Poland. Such incidents highlight the importance of diversification and resilience in payment infrastructure.
Sources:
About the Author
Aleksander Zębrowski
Chief Technology Officer at SecurHub.pl
PhD candidate in neuroscience. Psychologist and IT expert specializing in cybersecurity.
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