Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News

McAfee questions security of NFC payments

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

McAfee security specialists say contactless payments technology pose a threat to consumers’ financial information, according to Reuters UK.

Mobile devices have little or not security, says Greg Day, an analyst at security specialist McAfee. At least 79% of consumers are using unprotected mobile phone handsets, while 15% are don’t know the security levels, according to a recent poll of 2,000 mobile users in the UK, U.S. and Japan.

“The mobile space is fraudsters’ biggest opportunity for the future, largely because many people still see their phone as a communication device, rather than something that they have to keep secure,” says Day.

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The European Payments Council (EPC) has published the second edition of its “White Paper on Mobile Payments.”

According to EPC, the white paper focuses on the usage of the mobile payments in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and explores how m-payment services can be delivered through cooperation between service providers in the payment industry and players within the mobile ecosystem.

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Lieberman Software has developed functionality for its Enterprise Random Password Manager product to automatically discover and update credentials used by McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator software.

McAfee’s ePolicy Orchestrator integrates security functions within an organization so that they can be configured by a single console.

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A recent survey conducted by Wincor Nixdorf shows that a strong majority of French consumers are interested in using fingerprint scanning technology to secure transactions.

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A new survey from Euro Kartensysteme shows that Germans are starting to embrace the idea of contactless and NFC payments.

Out of 1,040 Germans aged 18-59, 43% responded that they would like to make contactless payments if given the opportunity, of which 58% percent would make their payments with a debit card card, 41% with a credit card and 50% with an NFC phone.

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Proxama has announced a partnership with semiconductor supplier ARM Holdings to create secure payment mechanisms for mobile handsets.

The UK-based partners say they will combine ARM’s TrustZone technology with Proxama’s Mobile Wallet to develop a “highly secure” environment for NFC-enabled mobile contactless payments and mobile internet payments.

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Ed McLaughlin, MasterCard’s head of Emerging Payments, has some good news for those waiting on NFC-enabled phones for contactless payments.

In an interview with Fast Company, McLaughlin said that he didn’t know of a handset maker who wasn’t working on integrating support for PayPass contactless payments.

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