Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Mobile commerce platform provider ROAM Data launches card reader with NFC

News4 new results for NFC Mobile Payment
Mobile commerce platform provider ROAM Data launches card reader with NFC
telecomlead.com
Telecom Lead Asia: ROAM Data, a mobile commerce platform provider, has developed a device agnostic card reader with near-field communication (NFC) and magnetic stripe. ROAM Data said the NFC Swipe will work on smart phones and tablets and even PCs, ...
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telecomlead.com
Google Wallet Engineer Leaves For Square As Google Acquires Prepaid Card Processor
Marketing Land
The (mobile) payments segment is one of the most interesting and dynamic in technology. Google Wallet made an early splashy debut but has stalled on lack of consumer availability — it still only works on one phone in the US. While that should change ...
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Google Wallet gains a startup, loses co-creator to Square
Android Community
Good news first: Google has acquired TxVia, a company that specialized in electronic payment systems. At the same time the NFC Times reports Google engineer Rob von Behren has jumped ship to rival mobile payment company Square, according to his own ...
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Android Community
Google Wallet Engineer Jumps Ship To Square (GOOG)
San Francisco Chronicle
One of the cofounding engineers behind Google Wallet, Rob von Behren, has left to take a job at hot payments startup Square. That's according to NFC Times, which discovered the move from a change in von Behren's LinkedIn profile. When NFC Times asked ...
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NFC - Payments Just One Part of the Equation

News4 new results for NFC Mobile Payment
Paying just one part of the mobile payments puzzle
GigaOM
By Tom Krazit Apr. 3, 2012, 4:55pm PT No Comments What is it going to take for mobile payments to finally register in the mind of the consumer? Maybe it's time to think about mobile shopping rather than mobile payments, panelists argued Tuesday at the ...
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GoPago's line-skipping mobile payment system launches in San Francisco
GigaOM
By Ryan Kim Apr. 3, 2012, 5:30pm PT 1 Comment As we've mentioned before, the key to mobile payments isn't in providing an alternative to a credit card swipe or a cash transaction. It's in providing additional value that you can't get right now from ...
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GigaOM
Google acquires mobile payments startup TxVia
Fiercemobilecontent
Google Wallet offers tap-and-pay services and mobile discount programs across selected Android devices. Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) supports the service on two phones, Samsung's Android-powered Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, and will add the LG Viper this spring ...
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Google Wallet boosted by acquisition of payments company TxVia
ComputerworldUK
By John Ribeiro | IDG News Service | Published 12:47, 03 April 12 Google has acquired TxVia, a payments technology company, to complement its own NFC payments capability Google Wallet. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
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Jetshop and the poster store - Mobile Payments Video Gallery

Web2 new results for NFC Mobile Payment
Jetshop and the poster store - Mobile Payments Video Gallery ...
... Bill Payment · Carriers / Card Schemes · Contactless / NFC ...
www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/.../Jetshop-and-the-poster-sto...
NFC Vs. Location-Based Payments: Which Will Win ...
There's an almost even divide between mobile wallets that employ NFC — near ...
www.mybanktracker.com/.../nfc-locationbased-payments-win/


Jetshop and the poster store

Tags: Retail
March 24, 2012   Length: 2:45





KC Fed Reserve Paper: US Payments System Failing to Meet the Needs of the Digital Economy

US payments system failing to meet the needs of the digital economy

From Finextra:

In a paper delivered late last week to a payments summit hosted by the Kansas City Fed, Bruce Summers - a career official with the Federal Reserve until his retirement in 2007 - lamented the lack of public interest governance in the US payments industry.

Taking the failure of the US to develop a mechanism for immediate funds transfer (IFT), such as the UK's Faster Payments scheme, as a key theme, Summers pointed out that neither the Federal Reserve Board nor prominent private sector organisations have either "the interest or the ability" to lead payment system development into the digital age.

"The idea that money in transit is digital information which can be processed immediately has not been readily accepted by the banking industry," he says. "Most bank-sponsored payment schemes depend on clearing and settlement systems that are designed around batch processing and delayed settlement, and these clearing and settlement arrangements are being nurtured as opposed to being re-designed around continuous, real-time processing."
Read more at Finextra 
Download the document now166.8 kb (PDF File)

Bump Pay app allows smartphone owners to exchange funds

News5 new results for NFC Mobile Payment
ROAM Data to Launch Payment Industry's First Device Agnostic Mobile NFC and ...
MarketWatch (press release)
ROAM is targeting mid-2012 for full commercial release of the NFC Swipe. Near-field communication (NFC) is an important part of the evolution of mobile payments and portends to be one of the industry's major competitive battlegrounds.
See all stories on this topic »
Nick Fairley arrested in Mobile
ESPN
ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert writes about all things NFC North in his division blog. According to Levy, police received several complaints of a suspicious Cadillac Escalade in a Mobile neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon. Police stopped the car, ...
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Square hires Google Wallet's co-founding engineer as the mobile payment space ...
The Next Web
The mobile payment startup Square has hired Google Wallet's co-founding engineer Rob von Behren, NFC Times reports. The information was revealed by von Behren himself on his LinkedIn profile. According to his online CV, von Behren had worked at Google ...
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LG Viper: First LG 4G LTE, on Sprint
msnbc.com
The LG Viper, LG's first device to run at 4G LTE speeds on the Sprint Network, is a 5-ounce, punchy smartphone that has the potential to pack a wallop, in that it supports NFC, Google Wallet, HD gaming, apps and video chats.
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msnbc.com
Bump Pay app allows smartphone owners to exchange funds
QR Code Press
Bump Pay, the second app by Bump Labs, has brought the company into the mobile payments market, allowing its users to tap their phones together in order to exchange money. The Bump Pay app has been developed based on the core technology of the company, ...
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QR Code Press

Headline News from the Payments Industry


Square hires Google Wallet cofounder Rob von Behren

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...
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Blogs3 new results for NFC Mobile Payment
Square Gets Bolder With Two Google Execs On the Team ...
By Mellisa Tolentino
Based on von Behren's new position, "HyperSpatial Payments Pioneer", U.S.-based mobile-commerce analyst and consultant Cherian Abraham strongly believes that Square may soon support NFC. "The fact that there will soon be plenty of ...
SiliconANGLE
Google Looks to Bolster Wallet With TxVia Buy - Mobile Now
By Features
The acquisition of TxVIA will provide Google with the means to build out its wallet independent of NFC hardware and returning to NFC integration once the requisite devices on both the merchant and consumer sides of the payment equation ...
Featured Articles on Mobile Now
Square hires Google Wallet cofounder Rob von Behren | The ...
By Jon Dick
Fresh off another high-profile hire, the mobile payment company picked up Rob von Behren, one of the engineers behind Google Wallet, and it might've tipped its hand in the process. Google Wallet, launched nearly a year ago, relies on NFC ...
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Mobile 'Wallets' Give Rise to New Generation of Cyber Pickpockets

News4 new results for NFC Mobile Payment
Google Wallet Gains Currency With TxVia Acquisition
InformationWeek
Google Wallet offers a way to store mobile payment service credentials on one's mobile phone. The phone user can make purchases using any of those services--MasterCard PayPass, for example--through NFC technology, which enables wireless payments.
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LG Viper Will Be Sprint's First LTE Phone
Mashable
The handset also has built-in NFC capabilities, which will allow owners to make mobile payments at select retailers using Google Wallet. The Viper also sports some eco-friendly features. The smartphone is protected by casing made of 50% recycled ...
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Mashable
Mobile 'Wallets' Give Rise to New Generation of Cyber Pickpockets
Experts Exchange (blog)
"Thieves are now more likely to go after both mobile payment software and phones enabled with near-field communications (NFC)," he observes. All is not lost, however. As a result of thieves' increased interest in these digital payment methods, ...
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Study shows that consumers are eager for mobile coupons, but few receive them
QR Code Press
Mobile coupons are a growing trend in the world of mobile marketing and commerce. These digital coupons are often used as an incentive to encourage mobile consumers to scan a QR code or interact with an NFC-based advertisement.
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QR Code Press


Update on the Global Payments Visa - MasterCard Breach

Image representing Global Payments as depicted...
Image via CrunchBase

Update on the Visa - MasterCard - Global Payments Network Breach

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Pierluigi Paganini

9a824a3f55b26adad5431f6715dbec2e
(Translated from the original Italian)
Yesterday morning, as planned, Global Payments Inc. - the Atlanta-based credit and debit card processor that recently announced a breach that exposed 1.5 million card accounts - held a conference call to discuss the breach and its impact.
Again, Krebs on Security Blog is the more accredited source on the incident in my opinion, as they had announced the breach first.
During the conference call, Paul Garcia, Chairman and CEO of Global Payments, focused the discussion on the response by the company to the incident. Garcia remarked that the company itself had reported the breach voluntarily.
Garcia didn't date the incident to January, like several rumors sustain, instead declaring that Global Payments has discovered it in early March and promptly informed the authorities.
He said:
“There’s a lot of rumor and innuendo out there which is not helpful to anyone, and most of it incredibly inaccurate. In terms of other timelines, I just cannot be specific further about that.”
The information provided is in contrast with that proposed by Krebs which announced that Visa and MasterCard were warned by the payment processor that an exposure occurred between Jan 21, 2012 and Feb. 25, 2012.
Garcia also added:
“This does not involve our merchants, our sales partners, or their relationships with their customers. Neither merchant systems, or point of sale devices, were involved in any way. This was self-discovered and self-reported.”
First, we must observe the scaling of the figures for the number of cards compromised initially was hypothesized that the exposed card were about 10 million, but the number dropped to 1.5 million today.
Unfortunately, Garcia hasn't provided more information regarding the incident, for this reason many experts have started to search for useful information on the Internet that could be related to the breach and to its timing.
Two useful observations were made by Krebs:
"For the past two years, GlobalPaymentsInc.com has been hosted at MaximumASP, a hosting provider in Louisville, KY. On Feb. 20, 2012, the company moved its Web site to Amazon’s EC2 cloud hosting service. MaximumASP declined to answer questions about possible reasons for the switch, citing customer confidentiality policies."
"The New York Times in a story published Saturday cited unnamed sources saying that this was the second time in a year that Global Payments had experienced a breach. I have heard likewise from an anonymous hacker who claims the company was breached just after the new year in 2011. The hacker said the company’s network was under full criminal control from that time until March 26, 2012. “The data and quantities that was gathered [was] much more than they writed [sic]. They finished End2End encryption, but E2E not a full solution; it only defend [sic] from outside threats.” He went on to claim that hackers had been capturing data from the company’s network for the past 13 months — collecting the data monthly — gathering data on a total of 24 million unique transactions before they were shut out."
"When asked if he had evidence that would back up his claims, the hacker produced a Microsoft Word document with Global Payments’s logo entitled “Disaster Recovery Plan TDS US: Loss of the Atlanta Data Center.” The document appears to have been created on May 6, 2010 by Raj Thiruvengadam, who according to LinkedIn.com was an Atlanta-based Oracle database administrator for Global Payments from May 2006 through August 2011."
"I asked Global Payments if they could verify the authenticity of the document, but have not yet heard back from them. I will not publish it, as it contains apparently sensitive information about the organization’s internal databases. A screen shot of the title page is below."
The above information gives the impression that something had happened a couple of years ago, an event that had prompted both the migration of systems and above all that had necessitated the implementation of a recovery procedure.
The info, though consistent, requires further study, but it is worth pointing out that other companies in the past which were victims of such incidents had discovered their systems were vulnerable long after the real date of the breach.
Crucial is being able to date the real involvement of the company and its management to determine if communications had been omitted in the past, an event that would have provided a case of failure in proper handling of the initial breach providing an advantage to the attackers.
These are all hypotheses that have as their intent to emphasize the importance of two factors:
  • implementation of procedures for the technical response to the events
  • media management of the event itself and its communication to business partners
The two aspects are strongly correlated and demonstrate that sometimes while managing the incident in a technically impeccable way, the omission of information about third parties can cause extensive damage and trigger dangerous mechanisms that can lead to disastrous consequences.
In the meantime, Visa temporary removed Global Payments from its list of "compliant service providers", leaving the door open to the company for reinstatement once the processor can be aligned again with "Visa's standards."
Looking the problem from the perspective of the customers, I can only suggest to them to wait to be contact by their banks, but in the meantime to monitor transactions on their accounts. The risks of counterfeit credit cards and illicit transactions is high.
Let's remember that Global Payments in a statement admitted:
"The investigation to date has revealed that Track 2 card data may have been stolen, but that cardholder names, addresses and social security numbers were not obtained by the criminals."
Visa referred ABC News to the Global Payments' announcement that Track 2 data was stolen.  While track 2 is used by the bank for the operation, "Track 1" data generally refers to the information reported on the front of a bank card, so if this information is stolen along with that contained in "Track 2", it is possible to clone a card.
Finally, I leave you with a thought: The fact that the company did not immediately discover the number of cards exposed leaves me thinking that it did not identify with any certainty the exposed portion of the system and the agent that made possible the exploitation of the vulnerability .
I think there are more questions still about the event than answers, so I hope in the next few days we will be able to faithfully reconstruct the events.
References:
Cross-posted from Security Affairs

Another Processor Data Breach - Really?

Gemalto Discusses Keys for NFC Mobile Payment Success at 4th ...
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MSP News - Cutting edge insight and analysis on managed services, from the leading MSP news and information resource.
www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2012/04/03/6232618.htm
Google Alert - NFC Mobile Payment - ePayments News - Zimbio
Web 10 new results for NFC Mobile Payment How Will NFC Mobile Payments Impact the General Business ... How will mobile payments using NFC impact the ...
www.zimbio.com/.../Google+Alert+NFC+Mobile+Payment
Shift4 Joins Microsoft Partner Network NFC Mobile Payment ...
Shift4 Joins Microsoft Partner Network | NFC Mobile Payment … "We're excited to gain this recognition and official status for our integration to Microsoft ...
https://nfcip.org/.../shift4-joins-microsoft-partner-network-nfc-...
ROAM Data to Launch Payment Industry's First Device ... - ITbriefing
Near-field communication (NFC) is an important part of the evolution of mobile payments and portends to be one of the industry's major competitive ...
itbriefing.net/modules.php?op=modload...
Another Processor Data Breach – Really? | NFC, Mobile POS, and ...
Breaking news this morning on the credit card security front is that there is yet another major breach at a processor. The term 'massive' is being used with the ...
www.mobilewaytopay.com/.../another-processor-data-breach-r...

Square Is Filled With Former Apple Designers, And It's Starting To Feel Like Kool Aid

Kool-Aid Man
Kool-Aid Man (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
ePayment News2 new results for NFC Mobile Payment
Square Is Filled With Former Apple Designers, And It's Starting To Feel Like Kool Aid ...
San Francisco Chronicle
...if the company is too design-focused then that can get in the way of building a product that people actually want, our source said. He said it feels like his former colleagues are all drinking the Kool-aid there.  Our source is not convinced that an external card reader is the best solution for taking mobile payments
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Square on a roll: It scores Google, Tesla employees amid hiring surge
Good Morning Silicon Valley (blog)
... mobile-payments company founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has managed to steal away talent from two Silicon Valley companies, Google and Tesla. The co-founding engineer of Google Wallet has jumped ship to Square, according to the NFC Times.
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ROAM Data to Launch "NFC Swipe"


ROAM Data to Launch Payment Industry’s First Device Agnostic Mobile NFC and Magnetic Card Reader Combo called “NFC Swipe”

ROAM introduces NFC Swipe in advance of commercial launch slated for mid-2012; marking milestone for low cost contactless acceptance in the evolution of mobile payments


BOSTON--()--ROAM Data, a leading mobile commerce platform provider, today said that it has developed the industry’s first device agnostic card reader with near-field communication and magnetic stripe combined called “NFC Swipe.” The NFC Swipe will work on hundreds of different smart phones and tablets and even PCs, turning them into secure state-of-the-art mobile POS devices. This marks the first truly low cost solution that can help proliferate the adoption of NFC and Contactless technology while supporting existing mag stripe technology at the same time. ROAM is targeting mid-2012 for full commercial release of the NFC Swipe.
“The additional capital is accelerating our growth plans and helping us speed up our innovations and product roadmap”
Near-field communication (NFC) is an important part of the evolution of mobile payments and portends to be one of the industry’s major competitive battlegrounds. NFC comprises a set of standards for smart-phones and other mobile devices to enable radio communication between them by touching the devices together or putting them in close proximity to each other. The range of applications supported by NFC includes contactless payment transactions, service discovery to pull information and ads, peer-to-peer data transfer and more.
In a space quickly becoming overpopulated with new entrants, ROAM's new card reader distinguishes itself in several key ways. Full end-to-end encryption processes data securely; NFC capability offers merchants unique processing flexibility; Swipe enables standard mag stripe payments for those without contactless cards yet; and ability to connect via the audio jack makes ROAM’s readers incredibly simple and ubiquitous across hundreds of mobile devices. The NFC Swipe will be compatible with Visa payWave and MasterCard PayPass specifications, the de facto standards that govern contactless payments globally. The readers will work with ROAM’s card acceptance applications ROAMpay X, as well as those of its white label partners. ROAM will also offer an API for 3rd Parties building its own applications to leverage the secure NFC Swipe reader.
ROAM said it accelerated its R&D and product commercialization plans in the wake of last month’s major investment by Paris-based Ingenico. “The additional capital is accelerating our growth plans and helping us speed up our innovations and product roadmap,” said ROAM Data CEO Will Graylin. “Beyond our planned launch of NFC-Swipe in mid-year, we plan to release an EMV Swipe for contact chip cards with magnetic stripe reader in the same convenient package, as well as other turn-key virtual mobile commerce solutions for our distribution partners such as Mobile Checkout, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Wallet that they can offer their merchants.”
Over the past year, ROAM Data has been quietly responsible for the vast majority of encrypted mobile card readers shipped in the industry, as part of its push to build market leadership as a provider of mobile commerce platforms. ROAM’s technology transforms the smart phones, tablets, and laptops into secure point-of-sale terminals, enabling consumers to securely and conveniently buy goods and services with payment cards. Since 2009, ROAM’s annual revenue growth has exceeded 600% per year. The company’s partner roster includes some of the world’s largest merchant service providers, including Sage, Vantiv, North American Bankcard, Total Merchant Services, Global Payments, First Data, and Chase Paymentech.

Google Wallet's Co-Founding Engineer Jumps Ship for Square

News
6 new results for NFC Mobile Payment
Google Wallet's Co-Founding Engineer Jumps Ship for Square
PC Magazine
Now, according to NFC Times, von Behren apparently felt that he could accomplish more at Square, which (if it wasn't for Ken Mages and HomeATM) would've pioneered mobile payments with an easy-to-use credit-card reader than could be plugged into an iPhone. ""When I left the Google Wallet project in ...
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Blue Bite Joins NFC Bootcamp™ as Silver Level Sponsor and Presenter
San Francisco Chronicle (press release)
"With the addition of Blue Bite as a Silver Level Sponsor and Presenter, we are adding a clear leader in the NFC mobile content delivery space. Blue Bite has extensive knowledge and experience implementing NFC marketing campaigns for their vast ...
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Mobile wallet: Indian scenario
Times of India
Near field communication or NFC is an emerging technology that will possibly have a big application in mobile payments. NFC provides on the mobile phone all the functionalities and security of a credit card. And it's a set of short-range wireless ...
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ARM in new JV to provide new secure mobile payment standard
Computer Business Review
The Cambridge based ARM Holdings is famously behind the ARM processor, which powers almost every mobile device on the planet. Gieseke & Devrient is known for its work with contactless payment chips, such as NFC (near field communications) and its ...
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Get ready: NFC is nearing its tipping point
VentureBeat
The original Oyster system was based on RFID, but it's now being upgraded to support NFC devices. Most recently, Scandinavian Airlines and Japan Airlines began using NFC technology to enable "smart" boarding passes that function as a mobile payment ...
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VentureBeat
HTC Australia Taps It
IT News Online
Tapit is a global NFC company, it exists to simplify the way people access information on their mobile phone. Founded in March 2011, Tapit has secured a number of the most important NFC deals in the world with companies such as Coke, Fanta, Blackberry, ...
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