Count On Users To Foil NFC Payment Security
Written by Frank HayesOctober 12th, 2011
Remember those demonstrations of how the payment-card numbers can be stolen from contactless cards by a thief carrying a card reader who bumps victims' wallets and purses in a crowd? Yes, it's been a staple of local TV news for years, and it's a legitimate potential security risk—a risk that was going to be eliminated by NFC mobile payments. That, it turns out, didn't quite work out the way the proponents of NFC phones were hoping it would.
The key to making phones more secure was supposed to be that a required PIN would prevent the NFC chip from being turned on most of the time, and the chip would be powered down quickly after a transaction when the screen went dark. That's certainly the way Google Wallet was designed for Android phones. But according to most of the reviews of Google Wallet, all that PIN-punching is a pain, and the phone's screen quickly going dark is annoying. Guess how secure that makes the NFC chip?
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One Comment | Read Count On Users To Foil NFC Payment Security
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Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
-Christine
October 16th, 2011 at 6:55 am
What’s wrong with a simple acknowledgement?
Imagine the phone displayed “Fred’s Newspapers asked for $1.23. Swipe upwards to approve”.
That would give positive confirmation, is unlikely to be accidentally triggered in your pocket, and is easier than typing a PIN every time.