The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Visa approves wireless payment chip

Two phones approved to surf the payWave

Visa has approved a microSD card for proximity payments, slotted into the BlackBerry Bold or Samsung Galaxy S, paving the way for payWave transactions on a mobile phone.

Visa's approval doesn't mean the cards, which come from DeviceFidelity, will definitely be available, but it does mean a bank currently issuing Visa payWave cards now has the option to send customers a microSD card, as long as the customer has the right kind of mobile phone.

PayWave, in common with other proximity-payment mechanisms, requires two components – an induction-powered radio tag and a cryptographically-secure element for authentication. DeviceFidelity squeezes both bits into a microSD card, but getting radio signals in and out is very dependent on what surrounds the card. Where the slot is under the battery, or sandwiched between circuit boards within a metallic case, getting a signal out might be impossible, and not every phone has a microSD slot anyway.

For the iPhone, DeviceFidelity solves the problem with a snap-on case, but now Visa has tested the internal-chip solution on two of the most-popular handsets and reckons it is up to snuff in both security and reliability terms. Visa told NFC Times that both handsets performed reliably in repeated tests, and that it looked forward to approving other handsets soon.

Putting the antenna inside the phone isn't a perfect solution: though this would mean it would be much better integrated with the phone, as in Google's Nexus S handset. But that starts an argument over who controls the secure element, or who gets the keys. A microSD card puts the keys in the hands of the issuing bank, an arrangement which will be more comfortable to many of the financial institutions involved. ®

Let's hear it for electronic pick-pocketing...

Thieves now have the capabilities to steal your credit card information without laying a hand on your wallet.

http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-electronic-pickpocketing-story,0,6564458.story?page=1

3
0

was about to link something like this.

But you beat me to it. Thumbs up for that. Thumbs down for mo' RFID.

1
0

They had to move, to maintain a foothold

The pace of developement in this technology was in danger of leaving Mastercard and Visa as also rans.

By introducing this sad compromise is technologically flawed and uses the SD slot that is meant for other, more frequent uses.

1
0

Re: Let's hear it for electronic pick-pocketing...

This is why I refuse to use this technology.

I see that the credit card people are already in denial, just like chip and pin they claim this technology hasn't been compromised.

Just be prepared for another round of the banks etc blaming the customers and saying they must have let someone get hold of their card.

2
1

Micro SD Slot.

Is it still useable as a storage device. My BB Bold has a woefully small amount of onboard ram, I need the SD for Music, photos etc.

1
0

More from The Register

Is the next-gen console war already One?
Microsoft’s new Xbox - and more
 breaking news
Apple cored: Samsung sells 10 million Galaxy S4 in a month
Beware of South Koreans bearing Android
US boffin builds 32-way Raspberry Pi cluster
Beowulf cluster built for the price of a single PC
STROKE this mouse to make apps POP, says Microsoft
Windows 8 Start button comes to Redmond's rodents
Nintendo throws flaming legal barrel at YouTubing fans
All your walk-through vid revenue are belong to us
Fairphone goes on sale to all
The Android handset that's PC can be yours

Hands on with Hyper-V 3.0 and virtual machine movement

Our award-winning Regcasts have teamed up with training provider QA for the deepest of deep dives into Hyper-V, including a live demo.

Understand VM movement - just click to play, or go here for a bigger version.