Tag: contactless payments

This technology is intended to be implemented at some point during 2014 for transit users.

The well known Oyster cards used for London’s transportation system could soon be a thing of the past if the contactless mobile payments solution proves to be successful next year after it is implemented.

This could represent a considerable change in the technology that is used by the transit system.

The test of the contactless mobile payments will begin this month and is expected to run for two full months. It will involve the participation of 5,000 people who regularly use the Tube, the Overground, or the DLR. They will be able to tap their way into and out of the system using a bank card that doesn’t need to be swiped. The system was already implemented using NFC technology into the busses in London in December a year ago. The full implementation of the service is now expected to occur next year.

This use of contactless mobile payments is expected to save the system a tremendous amount of money.

In fact, it has been predicted that through the use of this NFC technology, instead of the traditional Oyster card, the transit system will be saving £80 million per year. This data is according to the information released by TfL in an interview that was conducted by the London Evening Standard.

It is not entirely clear exactly how this system will work. The passengers who use the service will be charged the rates that are the equivalent to the pay as you go system. However, when the system goes live, it is not yet known to the public whether the new form of transaction will allow them to purchase Travelcards at the reduced rate. At the time that the interview was held, TfLwas unable to state whether or not this new form of paying for transit would be followed by a method of using smartphones to pay for fare.

The TfL has stated that it is committed to a number of new contactless mobile payments initiatives that would include the use of smartphones for various purposes. This could include paying for fare, one day, but it also involves a promise that WiFi will become available in all of the Tube stations. All ticketing staff will also soon be equipped with iPads. The changes that will be made to offices and ticket halls will mean that 950 jobs will be cut as they are closed by 2015.

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.