This will allow cardholders in India to take advantage of a paperless program for debit and credit.

Citibank India has just announced that it is making a new mobile payments system available to provide paperless banking to its credit and debit cardholders, which would eliminate the need for printed receipts.

The service will then go on to become available to the entire Citigroup global network.

This mcommerce news places Citibank India at the very head of all of the Citigroup country franchises that have launched a mobile payments solution that is innovative within the industry. This particular system was developed in conjunction with the technology available through its partner in the venture, Ezetap.

The bank released a statement that indicated that it already has seven mobile payments partnerships.

By the launch of the mobile payments service in India, it had already established partnerships with seven of the country’s leading brands. It hopes that a large number of its over 320 million cardholders will embrace this technologies and begin to see their mobile devices as a new way to complete credit and debit transactions.

The new mobile payments solution is designed to assist consumers in being able to buy a number of different goods and services. However, it will also allow them to pay bills, such as their smartphone service invoice or their insurance premiums. It can also help them to purchase tickets to movies, the theater, and various events. All of these transactions can be completed wherever the consumer happens to be: at home, at work, or elsewhere, and the purchases will be charged to the Citibank card of their choice.

That said, the banking institution has also said that the mobile payments will also allow consumers to make purchases at retail locations, themselves, without having to stand in line to reach the checkout counter. Instead, they will be able to complete a paperless transaction at any point in the store. Citibank has explained that it hopes that this will eliminate the need to have to keep track of sales receipts and slips, for convenience both for the consumer and the merchant, alike.

100% of Android applications compromised, according to Metaforic

All of the most popular mobile applications for the Android platform may have been hacked, according to Infosecurity, an online resource for security information. This possibility is being echoed by Metaforic, a leading mobile security provider, which suggests that the likelihood of a person downloading a compromised application has risen exponentially over the past few years. Metaforic notes that as more compromised applications become available, they could create a serious security threat against major enterprises and even government agencies.

Lack of standards and wide variety of development practices seed potential threats

Application development has changed over the years and developers have adopted myriad practices in order to conduct their tasks. Because there are so many ways to create a mobile application, there is limited standardization that exists to protect the integrity of these applications and ensure they live up to a certain expectation. Metaforic notes that most, if not all, applications becoming compromised because of app repackaging. Repackaging refers to programs that are part of applications that automatically install software across a wide variety of platforms.

Few consumers take steps to protect their mobile devices

Another issue that is causing significant problems in the mobile security sector is the fact that very few people actually protect their smart phones and mobile devices. The vast majority of consumers do not have any kind of security software installed on their devices, leaving them at risk of having their device infected by malware or exploited in other ways. While most mobile devices have some form of internal security, third party software is often needed to completely ensure the security of a smart phone or tablet.

Metaforic advises consumers to find ways to protect themselves

Many of the compromised applications available for the Android platform are likely dormant in some fashion. That is to say that the threats associated with these applications have not yet been activated. Indeed, these threats may never actually take form, but given the fact that so many applications have been compromised — in many cases long before they have actually reached the app market — it may be prudent for consumers to find new ways to protect themselves.