Tag: mobile security news

Visa announces the launch of its new Token Service

Visa has announced that it has launched its Token Service. The service is meant to drive innovation in the mobile commerce field while also introducing more security to digital payments. The service replaces valuable financial information with digital tokens, which have the ability to authenticate mobile transactions. Security is one of the most significant challenges facing the mobile commerce space currently and Visa has been taking steps to address this issue in recent years.

Storing financial information on a mobile device can be risky

When it comes to mobile payments, a consumer’s financial information is often stored on a mobile device. This information can be stored on a digital wallet platform or a payment service. The problem with this is that this information can be accessed whenever such a platform is exploited. Malicious groups often target mobile commerce services in order to obtain such information. Visa’s Token Service may resolve this issue by removing the need to store financial information on a mobile device completely.

Token Service removes the need to store financial information

The Token Service is designed to replace a consumer’s financial information with digital tokens. These tokens do not contain a consumer’s information, but can still be used to facilitate a mobile payment. The tokens can be stored by merchants and not just consumers as well. This means that consumers can shop at their favorite online stores and make purchases from their mobile devices without having to input any valuable financial information.

New service is meant to bring more convenience and security to the mobile commerce field

Visa’s Token Service will only be available in the U.S. until early 2015. Next year, Visa plans to introduce the service to several other countries where mobile and e-commerce are thriving. The service is designed to further improve the attractiveness of mobile shopping and payments by highlighting security and convenience. Mobile commerce has thrived due to its convenient nature, but there are relatively few security solutions that have made consumers comfortable with paying for products from their mobile devices.

New malware is now causing problems, particularly with Android users who speak Russian.

Just as smartphone users are beginning to realize that their small screen devices could suffer just as big a malware threat as their laptops and desktop computers, a new mobile security announcement has been made which has revealed that Android users who speak Russian are being targeted by a new type of text based attack.

This specific form of mobile malware moves right in to the device contact list to spread and infect others.

According to Eset, a security vendor, the malware is a worm-like virus called “Android/Samsapo.A”. Once it has made its way into a device, it can download other malicious files into that device, as well, making it a mobile security problem that only gets worse. It can also steal an individual’s personal information from his or her smartphone or tablet, including from text messages, and it can block phone calls from being made or received.

This mobile security threat is a very new one and it is important for device users to be aware of it.

According to a malware researcher from Eset, Robert Lipovsky, this virus uploads the data that it obtains from a device into a domain that is less than a month old. The spread of the Samsapo virus occurs by automatically sending out text messages from the infected mobile device so that they will be received by other people whose contact data is saved within the address list.

The virus has a rather worm-like characteristic in that has been used in other forms of malware that have been infecting smartphones and even tablets. In this specific case, the text message that spreads the virus currently says, in Russian, “Is this your photo?”. It provides a link that directs the device user to an Android app package file (.APK), which contains a copy of the virus, which will then be downloaded into the new device, starting the process over again.

Lipovsky stated that “This technique wouldn’t raise an eyebrow on Windows, but is rather novel on Android.”

The best way to avoid this type of mobile security breach is to avoid the download of third party platform apps, and to keep away from websites that provide sketchy, illegal, threatening, or dangerous content.