Tag: mobile wallet

Mobile security struggles continue to plague LifeLock

The company has now chosen to suspend its app regarding due to the problems and is managing the aftermath.

LifeLock, a giant in the identity theft industry, has now suspended its app following the massive mobile security issues that had plagued it, in order to give the company the chance to try to deal with some of the fallout from this devastating blow.

The company’s stock also took quite a beating when analysts downgraded it to “neutral” from “buy”.

The target share price had reached the point that it was slashed in half, by the time this article was written. The Tempe-based company’s stock price has been riding a virtual roller coaster and it doesn’t look as though it will be slowing down quite yet. This was all in response to the announcement that as a mobile security precaution, all of the user information from the LifeLock Wallet would be deleted, and the app would be taken down from Google Play, Amazon Apps, and other application stores.

Officials from LifeLock have revealed that the primary mobile security concern was over compliance.

They have stated that this is not a response to a cyberattack, but instead it is a precaution because they have discovered that their own application is not in compliance with the standards for credit card security. They explained that theMobile Security Strugglesy were working on correcting the problem as quickly as they could, which makes it apparent that the removal of the application was done only as a temporary measure and they are hoping to provide a new one in the future.

Officials underscored the point that no personal information for any of their users had been compromised in any of these events.

According to the LifeLock vice president of corporate communications, “We’re still in the fact-finding period.” He went on to add that “We are limited in what we can share right now.” That said, he did explain that the issue with compliance was found internally and that the company voluntarily came forward to the Federal Trade Commission in order to report it.

They are now working on improving their mobile security in order to ensure that it complies with the Payment Card Industry standards for the protection of personal information.

Mobile wallets will be available in one in every five smartphones

By the year 2018, there is going to be a considerable rise in the capabilities for these payments apps.

According to a new forecast that has now been published, by the year 2018, one fifth of all smartphones will have mobile wallet functionality, and one third of all of those payments apps will involve contactless capabilities such as NFC technology.

This report has indicated that there will be a considerable growth in the potential for these apps.

The study and report were created by Juniper Research. That firm determined that there will be two separate mobile wallet models that will define themselves between now and the close of 2018. Within the emerging markets, it will be the Store Value Accounts (SVAs) that will continue to take off. Those forms of app are catering to the massive number of unbanked individuals in Latin America, developing Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa by providing them with financial access for the first time.

In the Western world, the mobile wallet model that will become common will be different.

That model will likely be based on contactless technology such as near field communication (NFC). These launches are expected to occur throughout North America and Western Europe. That latter form appears to be facing the greatest level of challenge when compared to emerging markets, where these apps are taking off more quickly. For instance, Alipay, in China, has already managed to register 100 million users.Mobile Wallet

The so-called iWallet, Apple’s contribution to this market space, is expected to arrive at any time. This could be a defining addition to mobile payments as it could either represent the point from which these smartphone wallets start to take off in the West, or it could reveal that these apps really will be facing some massive struggles in being able to take off.

It is believed that the iWallet will be based on HCE (Host Card Emulation) NFC services. The use of HCE could prove to be a considerable threat to the role of mobile operators in the contactless payments market. It likely won’t be very long before a much better understanding of the direction of the mobile wallet will be formed.