Today's Top Stories Consumer fears over security and privacy continue to haunt mobile commerce, with a new study finding that nearly half of all consumers would never use mobile payment and banking apps. In an email to FierceMobileIT, digital identity expert Intercede said that its study "The Rise of the Identity Centric Economy" reveals that 44 percent of U.S. consumers would never use mobile banking services and 48 percent would never use bill payment apps. "The data reveals that while the adoption of smartphones is widespread in the U.S. (close to 80 percent), and more than half say that security is a primary factor in choosing a new smartphone, current security measures are inadequate for consumers to fully realize mobile technology," the firm noted. In terms of some specifics, the survey of 2,000 consumers found that over one third would never use PayPal on a mobile device, and one in five do not feel safe shopping on their cell phones. "Furthermore, 63 percent are worried about the level of security on their mobile device, with 84 percent of those concerned about data loss in the event their mobile device was stolen citing identify theft as their biggest worry," the firm explained. Commenting on the study findings, Intercede CEO Richard Parris said "Nearly every week we read about another high profile hacking story in the news. From major attacks such as Heartbleed to eBay's recent data breach, it's not surprising that consumers just don't trust mobile security. This throttling the mobile economy. But with smartphone use so widespread and with the mobile device boom set to continue, it's clear that security needs a radical revamp."
Related Articles:
Consumers like mobile payments, not mobile wallets
BlackBerry: There's life in the old dog yet
Why retailers need to board the e-commerce bandwagon Read more about: Mobile payments
back to top
Last year, Forrester predicted the U.S. mobile payment market will reach $90 billion by 2017. Given the popularity of mobile transaction apps like Square, PayPal and the recently launched Amazon Local Wallet, you'd think consumers would eat up the mobile wallet idea. But, no, it hasn't turned out that way at all. There are plenty of apps on the market that allow users to store loyalty cards, gift cards and even credit and debit card information. Mobile banking apps are offered by nearly every major financial institution and most credit card institutions offer apps as well. Yet, Google Wallet fell flat with consumers, PayPal digital wallet is underutilized by its own customers, and there's not a lot of excitement over Apple's rumored release of an e-wallet as part of the next major iOS update. According to a white paper by payment processing company TSYS, one in five smartphone users have a mobile wallet installed on their phone but usage reflects only 1.2 percent of the total transactions made by U.S. consumers in 2012. The biggest issue? Security, of course. "It turns out that even in the age of social networks and over-sharing, consumers are worried about the security and privacy of mobile wallets, according to a 2013 study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). People trust storing their loyalty cards and discount coupons in a mobile wallet, but when it comes to money or digital house keys, they will take a big step back, the PwC report says. Their main concerns are theft and loss of access, such as when their phone loses battery power or hits a technical glitch. They also do not want their mobile carriers knowing what they are doing with their funds," reads an article from the technology department at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. At a time when reports of financial security breaches occur on an unnervingly regular basis, getting customers to buy in on the idea of mobile wallets appears to be an uphill climb. Then again, debit cards were met with an enormous level of suspicion when banks first began issuing them. Fingerprint ID and other types of highly individual-dependent types of security are being built into commonplace technology these days it's a fair assumption that it's precisely that type of technology will finally break down the barrier to widespread use of mobile wallets in the not-too-distant future.
For more:
- read the TSYS white paper (reg. req.)
- check out the article at Wharton's website
- read the Forrester report
Related Articles:
Amazon Local Register aims to lure retailers away from Square, PayPal
Survey: Convenience driving consumer interest in NFC-based mobile wallets Read more about: Mobile Wallet
back to top
Apple's iPhone may be most vulnerable to malware when connected to a computer, according to IDG News Service, and is particularly susceptible when connected through USB or Wi-Fi. The article cites a study conducted by researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology that proves "infecting a large number of iOS devices through botnets is feasible." The vulnerability lives only in malware-infected computers which can then become active while syncing iPhones. According to the article, botnet herders make these attacks easier by selling "access to large networks of compromised computers" to hackers. The trick can only be pulled off when a person has his or her Apple ID account active. The only way to download apps--in this case, malicious ones--is to sign in. However, the researchers, led by co-author Tielei Wang, found a way to use a "man-in-the-middle attack" that uses the USB or Wi-Fi connection to sign in with another user's Apple ID. What's even scarier about this? The app doesn't have to come from the Apple App Store to make its way onto the iPhone. "Apple issues developer certificates to those who want to do internal distributions of their own applications. Those certificates can be used to self-sign an application and provision it," the article says. "Wang's team found they could sneak a developer provisioning file onto an iOS device when it was connected via USB to a computer. A victim doesn't see a warning. That would allow for a self-signed malicious application to be installed. Legitimate applications could also be removed and substituted for look-alike malicious ones," states the article. That's not all. According to IDG News Service, cookies from Facebook or Gmail accounts can be stolen via a USB connection. For enterprises deploying iPhones to employees, or those who allow Apple products in their BYOD program, this may be worthy of note. This report comes on the heels of this week's release of Good Technology's Q2 2014 Mobility Index Report (pdf) that shows Apple is losing enterprise app activations to Android. Apple is usually praised for its stalwart security, but with these findings, could Apple see more loss in the enterprise space?
For more:
- read the IDG News Service story (via InfoWorld)
- see the Georgia Institute of Technology paper
Related Articles:
Report highlights cyclical nature of enterprise phone activations
Mobile broadband modems are 'easy to attack,' says researcher
Jailbreaking iOS devices: Never say fixed Read more about: iOS
back to top
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.