Black Hat AsiaPaying for stuff with your smartphone is downright dangerous according to Zhe Zhou, a pre-tenure associate professor at Fudan University, who yesterday explained how three different payment methods can be cracked at Black Hat Asia in Singapore. In a talk titled “All your payment tokens are mine: Vulnerabilities of mobile …

The advent of mobile point-of-sale (MPOS) systems has been a boon for consumers and retailers of modest means, but the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council's security wonks worried that they can't adhere to the strict hardware standards that merchants' credit card merchant terminals. Hence the announcement [PDF] of …

Thousands of free-to-use cash machines could be axed from Britain's high streets due to plans to cut fees that fund the network, banking industry group LINK warned last week. LINK has a strategy to minimise the impact to consumers due to a proposed reduction in fees over the next four years from around 25p to 20p per cash …

AnalysisA survey on global mobile wallet adoption, published Tuesday, has sparked a lively debate about how banks and fintech might face off in the expanding market for mobile payments. Global payments software firm ACI Worldwide found that security concerns, while present, are not holding back uptake. Steven Murdoch, a security …

AnalysisToday marks the 50th anniversary of the Automated Teller Machine (ATM), the first of which was installed outside Barclays Bank, Enfield Town in north London. Actor Reg Varney from '70s sitcom On the Buses was the first to use the cash machine. Fast forward half a century and cash machines have become a familiar high street …

The four Australian banks that wanted to start their own mobile payments service using the near-field communications chips inside iPhones have been rebuffed, partly because Apple said that even if a ruling went against it the company would not have allowed them access to the chippery. The Australian Competition and Consumer …

A “quantum gadget” prototype capable of sending quantum keys using polarized light could make contactless payments on mobile more secure if it can be squeezed into a smartphone. The rise of contactless cards and apps such as Apple Pay and Android Pay have made it easier to make payments. Although swiping a card or smartphone …

Android Pay's UK launch is promising but could be held back by malware concerns, security and payment experts warn. The Google-backed technology launched in the UK on Wednesday, adding to the options smartphone users can employ when paying for goods and services using their mobile rather than a card. Smartphone payment systems …

Samsung’s mobile payment system supplier, LoopPay, was hacked back in March this year, it has emerged. The breach - blamed on a Chinese hacking crew - at the Samsung subsidiary was only discovered in August. Investigators reckon hackers from the so-called Codoso Group were after information to do with the magnetic secure …

Verizon Ventures has invested in NFC technology company SimplyTapp. What makes this interesting is that SimplyTapp is a cloud-based service using Host Card Emulation (HCE) for the security element in Android phones. Operators have traditionally supported the rival Single Wire Protocol (SWP) standard and Vodafone recently …

UK banking giant Barclays has confirmed plans to allow Brits and small businesses to use their, er, Twitter handle to make payments online. Customers who use Barclays' mobile payment service Pingit on Android phones and iOS slabs will be able to pay others via Twitter as of 10 March, the bank said. Barclays mobe banking boss …

Google may not have bought Softcard – not exactly – but the online ad-slinger's deal with the mobile payments firm has apparently left Softcard with nothing to do but shut down its service. Google announced on Monday that it had acquired "some exciting technology and intellectual property" from Softcard, but it didn't say what …

Google may be looking to buy struggling mobile payments firm Softcard, industry scuttlebutt suggests. The Chocolate Factory is reported to have been snooping around Softcard with an eye to acquiring it for an undisclosed sum of cash that may be less than $100m. Readers may remember Softcard as the mobile payments company …

+CommentOh, what a surprise. NFC has failed to ignite the imagination of iPhone users, with 90 per cent of them shunning the payment method of the future. This is among the findings of stats-loving website InfoScout, which reports that of the approximately 20 million or so iPhone 6s which have been sold, 18 million have never been …

The Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) went on a PR offensive on Wednesday to explain what happened in the hacking attack that saw its testers' emails exposed, why its member retailers banned Apple Pay and Google Wallet, and what makes its CurrentC mobile payment system so great. Dekkers Davidson, CEO of MCX, which represents 50 …

A video and photos have appeared on Chinese websites purporting to be "real" shots of the iPhone 6 – just days ahead of Apple's latest iStuff showcase on September 9. Vulture Weekend notes that this is potentially pure tittle tattle and understands only too well that on the internet nobody knows you're a dog. Yada yada ... But …

That leaking tap at Cupertino refuses to be jammed ahead of Apple's 9 September launch of new iThings. The latest speculative report says that the fruity company has inked iPhone payment agreements with CVS and Walgreens - the two biggest pharmacies in the US. According to Re/Code, which cites a source briefed on the plans, …

In a bid to distance itself from a violent Islamist militant group, US-based mobile payment company Isis has said that it will change the name of its Wallet service to Softcard. The company announced the rebranding plan in July, in hopes of avoiding being linked with the ruthless Sunni jihadist fighting force known variously …