Tag: nfc mobile

Ingenico Group compiles predictions being made by prominent mobile commerce players

With January coming to a close, predictions concerning how mobile payments will fare in 2016 are beginning to emerge. Ingenico Group, one of the world’s largest suppliers of mobile payments terminals, has aggregated the predictions coming from many of the groups most involved in mobile commerce. These predictions highlight the trends that are beginning to emerge in the mobile commerce space, which may go a long way in determining whether or not consumers will actually use their mobile devices to purchase products.

Mobile point-of-sale systems will be more common in the coming months

Creditcall, a payment service provider, predicts that mobile point-of-sale systems will become more common throughout the world. This is being driven by the number of credit card companies that are including new chips in their cards. Retailers are also driving the growing adoption of mobile point-of-sale systems, but they are also beginning to use mobile technology to process transactions made by consumers. More merchants are expected to begin using devices, like the iPad, to expedite the checkout process.

NFC technology is beginning to gain more support from retailers and other businesses

NFC technology is expected to see significant growth, in terms of adoption, this year. This technology allows for digital information to be transmitted over short distances. NFC has made up much of the mobile payments environment for several years and it is becoming more important for retailers to embrace this technology in order to effectively engage consumers. Retailers are also feeling increased pressure to embrace omni-channel strategies. Ingenico Group predicts that more retailers will adopt such strategies to provide better services and engagement to consumers.

Security remains one of the greatest challenges facing mobile payments

Security will likely be a prominent focus for those involved in mobile payments this year. Many consumers avoid mobile payments services because of concern that their financial information could be stolen and exploited. Organizations invested in mobile commerce are likely to make use of new technology to ensure consumer protection. An increased focus on security may ensure that consumers become more comfortable with the concept of mobile payments.

A hidden antenna was used by researchers to test the ease of sensitive customer data theft.

A paper was recently published, entitled “Eavesdropping near field contactless payments: a quantitative analysis”, which detailed a study in which researchers examined mobile safety attacks through NFC technology security meant for contactless payments transactions.

The researchers made an antenna that they hid on shopping carts using low cost electronics.

Their explanation for this effort was to test NFC technology security with a near field communication inductive loop antenna, which was employed for mimicking an ISO 14443 transmission. Then, in order to be able to actually “eavesdrop”, there was a second, identical inductive loop antenna that was installed onto a shopping cart, which they modified in order to transmit in a way that was like an antenna.

Even though NFC technology security has been touted as safe, researchers found the opposite.

The researchers in this study found that although near field communication based contactless payments are becoming increasingly popular in the United Kingdom and Europe, and that consumers are trusting this tech as safe, these transactions are actually more vulnerable than had previously been thought.

The belief that there could be problems is not new as some had already been pointing out certain vulnerabilities – three, in fact – as early as 2008. Since that time, hacking into near field communications transmissions for payments and directly relaying, skimming, or eavesdropping on sensitive data transmissions from customers has been in the spotlight.

Until now, services had not known how to make this tech both simple and reliable. This is how these transactions are now often viewed. However, these researchers, who are from the University of Surrey, have now looked further into the safety of the tech through the use of cheap and easily accessible electronics from stores. They were able to measure the distance, success rates, and a number of other factors.

What they showed, was that NFC technology security isn’t as high as some might think. They determined that if an attacker with the same equipment was to head out and “shop” for a consumer’s payments data, it would not be difficult for a cyber attack to occur through the use of these electronics, while pointing a shopping cart at the victim as he or she pays for the purchase.