Tag: mobile security

Organizations are showing more support for security solutions as they become involved in mobile payments

As organizations become more invested in mobile payments, they are also becoming more invested in security. Two topics have emerged in the mobile space that could have a major impact on the payments space: Biometrics and authentication. Authentication has long been an aspect of the commerce world that has been put to use for the sake of security, but biometrics is relatively new to this field. Biometric technology, in particular, could become the single most effective way to protect the financial information of consumers.

Biometrics are gaining prominence in the mobile space

Biometric technology makes use of biological information to secure a transaction and data. Fingerprints are one of the ways that this technology ensures that consumers remain safe. As this technology improves, however, fingerprints are no longer the only thing that can be used to secure a transaction. Alibaba, one of the largest e-commerce entities in the world, recently began testing a new feature for the Alipay platform, owned by Ant Financial, and affiliate of Alibaba, that is intended to make payments safer. The feature is called “Smile To Pay,” and makes use of facial recognition technology to authenticate a mobile payment.

MasterCard sees a promising future in facial recognition technology as well as tokenization

MasterCard is also becoming a major player in the improved security of mobile payments. The company has been promoting tokenization for some time, which involves converting financial information into unique digital tokens that can be used to approve transactions. MasterCard is also becoming more invested in facial recognition technology, suggesting that this technology may be the next step in the evolution of mobile security.

Security continues to grow as a priority as mobile payments gain momentum among consumers and businesses alike

Mobile payments have long been plagued by security concerns, and these concerns have introduced a wide variety of solutions, some of which have been more effective than others. With companies becoming more involved in the mobile payments space, advanced security solutions, such as biometrics, are beginning to gain more support.

It may soon be possible for customers of Lloyds Bank to use their contactless card to authorize smartphone transactions.

Customers of Lloyds Bank who have both a contactless debit card and who have an NFC technology enabled device may soon be able to combine the two in order to enhance the mobile security of the banking app so that they can authenticate their identity.

The authentication tech has been nicknamed “tap to bank” and the pilot program involves 125 people.

The participants in the mobile security experiment will replace the current authentication method that uses call to mobile, with a quick tap of the contactless debit card against the smartphone. According to Lloyds Bank, this type of authentication feature could one day be broadened to complete other types of task, as well, such as for the verification of new payments.

It is clear that this new mobile security technology is only at the very beginning of its use by the bank.

According to Marc Lien, the Lloyds Bank director of innovation and digital development, “With the widespread take up of contactless cards and most new smartphones now having NFC technology, this tap to bank trial is developing enhancements to banking processes that many people could benefit from.”

The bank is also currently working to replace the automated authorization phone calls that are currently used for the confirmation of certain transactions completed over desktop, as well. In that case, the user can verify requests by logging into the mobile banking app.

That process will be available to individuals who are setting up repeat orders, who are establishing new beneficiaries, who will be making an international payment, or who will be resetting their passwords by way of Internet Banking over a laptop or desktop computer.

Lloyds has explained that these new methods of authentication by way of mobile security technology makes the process considerably faster and more convenient than the automated phone call. Its current estimates are that the entire process could now be done in under 20 seconds, when compared to the lengthier method using the automated calls. Mobile banking is becoming increasingly important among the bank’s customers and is more than likely a driving factor behind this experiment.