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Canadian vending machine mobile payments are poised to take off

The CNVA has announced that it is preparing to roll out mpayments across the country.

A new announcement from the Canadian National Vending Alliance (CNVA) included the roll-out of vending machine mobile payments nationwide. The CNVA intends to launch machines compatible with smartphone transactions throughout Canada.

In order to complete that roll-out, the CNVA has been working with PayRange and its BluKey dongle.

The new partnership with PayRange has made it possible for the BluKey dongle to be installed in existing machines. In this way, contactless vending machine mobile payments can be accepted via the PayRange app. That mobile application accepts all major credit cards. It is available to both iOS and Android device users.

Vending Machine Mobile Payments - Vending MachinesSteve Tremblay, the president of CNVA, stated: “with more people becoming increasingly cashless, we realized we needed a mobile payment solution to bring to all our machines.”

This addition of vending machine mobile payments has been deemed a prudent step ahead.

After all, USA Technologies vending machine solutions provider in the United States recently released interesting research findings. They indicated that revenue increases were possible through self-service POS terminals for which Apple Pay functionality has been properly advertised. This indicates that there is a growing interest in mobile payments among consumers.

While there have been many barriers in the way of adopting mobile payments, consumers are starting to show interest. Those invested in this market hope consumers will see the convenience of mobile wallets in these self-service areas. This could lay the foundation for broader use after consumers become more accustomed to using their smartphones to pay.

Still, it is important to recognize that Apple Pay remains the best known mobile wallet in the world. Compared to its rivals, it has managed a certain degree of popularity. The launch of the vending machine mobile payments occurs at a time when far fewer consumers have downloaded – or even heard of – the PayRange app. It will be interesting to see what percentage of consumers will be drawn in by the mpayments option when they decide to make their next purchase from a vending machine. Particularly as exact change is increasingly inconvenient.

Android mobile security vulnerability exposes nearly a billion devices

Approximately 900 million gadgets have been exposed and the fix will be a tough one.

The latest Android mobile security problem to have been identified is a big one. This vulnerability isn’t specific to any particular make, model or version of firmware. This is because it doesn’t actually have to do with the operating system. Instead, it’s an issue based at Qualcomm, the hardware manufacturer component provider.

At the moment, there are about 900 million Android smartphones with the vulnerable Qualcomm components.

What makes this Android mobile security problem worse is that it will be quite the challenge to fix. This, according to the Check Point security research firm.. There are actually four issues that make up the vulnerability. Together, these four issues are called QuadRooter. They impact Qualcomm chipsets from a number of different manufacturers. Manufacturers include Google, LG, HTC, OnePlus and others. The Google devices include the various manufacturers that make the Nexus smartphones and tablets.

Unfortunately, this Android mobile security vulnerability is a very serious one.

Android Mobile Security - Exposure and VulnerabilityCompromised devices are open to a spectrum of different types of vulnerabilities. Primarily, it could provide unauthorized root access. This means cyber criminals could obtain any information stored on the device. The vulnerability also lets criminals take control of a phone’s camera and microphone and can track the device’s GPS location. Essentially, it is providing someone not only with the keys to your house, but also all your passwords and a means to carry all your belongings away.

Vulnerabilities in mobile security are not rare. All operating systems have experienced them. That said, when iOS vulnerabilities occur, Apple can typically address the problem very quickly because they are in control of both the software and hardware of their devices. However, the same cannot be said about Android.

According to Check Point mobile research team member, Jeff Zacuto, “Android security updates are really hard.” “The Android ecosystem is so fragmented. There are a lot of different versions and variants of Android in the marketplace, because each individual device has its own particular nuances,” he said.

This problem with Android mobile security isn’t anything recent. In fact only 15 percent of devices on this operating system are operating on its newest version, which means the rest are not operating with the latest protection features.