Mobile industry calls for RFID payment push
Summary
Topics
The technology, known as Near Field Communications (NFC), is the same kind of contactless payment connectivity that is built into London's Oyster travel card and the latest generation of bank cards. On Tuesday, at the start of the Mobile Asia Congress in Macau, the GSMA said building NFC into phones would "ensure that consumers can reap the benefits of mobile-payment services as soon as possible".
"There is no doubt that there is a huge latent demand for a large variety of mobile transaction services, of which there is universal interest in proximity payments, as trials across the world have already shown," said GSMA chief executive Rob Conway in a Tuesday statement. "We are committed to ensuring that mobile-payment services are delivered as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible."
Conway added that an industry-wide NFC push would ensure "significant" economies of scale, making it cheaper for manufacturers to include the technology in their products. NFC-enabled payments are already relatively commonplace in the Far East, and recent analysis by Jupiter Research predicted that one in five handsets worldwide would include the technology by 2013.
The GSMA is recommending that manufacturers adopt the Single Wire Protocol standard, which involves a direct connection between an embedded NFC chipset and a SIM card. According to the industry body, this type of NFC would allow "a wide range of secure, interoperable and transparent services, such as credit and debit payments", using existing contactless readers in shops, restaurants and train stations.
The organization has conducted what it claims were successful trials of the technology in eight countries — including Australia, the US, Taiwan, France and others — under the auspices of its 'Pay-Buy-Mobile' initiative.
This scheme did not encompass recent UK trials, which have been carried out separately and with apparent success by O2, Barclaycard, Visa, Nokia, Transport for London and others.
A GSMA spokesperson told ZDNet UK on Tuesday that NFC-enabled handsets would make their way to the UK as manufacturers started making them: "We as a group haven't looked at the UK market in detail, but the Oyster card has been very successful, and it's the same principle." The spokesperson added that the GSMA expected the handsets to hit the UK in the second half of 2009.
Talkback Most Recent of 18 Talkback(s)
-
yet another way to hack into your wallet!
Invisibly with no pain at all, your bank account can now be drained even more efficiently, and the phone and credit card companies will only charge you yet another fee for the "convenience". To them, that is ...
terry flores18th Nov 2008 -
Grow up!
For goodness' sake grow up! Paranoia such as this kills
initiatives and lets other countries take a competitive edge.
Done properly, there is no risk to the individual greater than
losing one's wallet - i.e. the risk depends on the individual's
care.
efreedom20th Nov 2008 -
Don't have to lose the wallet now!
The problem here is that you don't even have to lose the wallet or cell phone to get hacked. And you will be in a bind before you even have a clue that you have a problem. You can get RFID kits on the net to do these hacks for like $50 with reader, writer, and chips.
atomicsupergeek4th Dec 2008 -
RE: Grow UP!????
I will tell you this: if I can loot your bank account; can I keep it???
I kind of think the answer is "NO"
Right now, it is too dammed easy to be ripped off, and then you have the burden of trying to get your money (or identity) back!!!
So, if someone asked me if I would use one of these devices, the answer is "NO".
If YOU care to enrich fraudsters, be my guest; but only I "know what's in my wallet".
fatman655354th Dec 2008 -
RE: Mobile industry calls for RFID payment push
People need to be very cautious and regard all attempts to institute RFID into everyday life as insidious. RFID human beings are not desirable to anyone except governments and corporations. I'm against neither governments nor corporations (I happen to be a CFO for godsakes) but there have been unprecedented attempts in the past decade to devour civil liberties and gather excessive amounts of information on individual. Information, not policeman or clandestine agencies, is the most powerful, albeit tacit, form of control.
Accordingly, I view this article not as an isolated instance in which technology can aide an industry, but as a premonition of things to come.
coltsleight@...18th Nov 2008 -
RE: Mobile industry calls for RFID payment push
pushing the use of a mobile phone to double as a wallet a horribly terrible idea. unlike a wallet that stays in my pocket until it needs to be briefly used and put away, a cell phone is constantly in and out. this exposure is worsened as the use of mobile phones is expanded to gps, mobile internet browsing, picture/video taking, gaming etc and so on.
because of those, loss and theft of phone is far more rampant than wallet theft. losing an instant-use wallet, while on the move also provides the problem of reporting it (as you would with a lost/stolen wallet to de-activate credit cards) because your main method of communication and content is gone along with it.
i am amazed at the nearsightedness or sheer arrogance/greed for the industry to try to push this.
deforge19th Nov 2008 -
RE: Mobile industry calls for RFID payment push
I believe this would be safer than current contact
less payment where all you have to do is swipe a pass
or a card. With this system you could be prompted for
a "Pin" like password, before the transaction went
through. Even better would be where the phone
prompted for a password and looked for the presence of
a RFID based ID item on your person (Ie. Credit Card,
Driver's license, or a band you place on your watch,
piece of jewelery or a wrist band you wear).
waltk1319th Nov 2008 -
You miss the point.
If it's electronic, it can be hacked. If there are more components involved, there's more opportunity to spoof the system. And there are low-tech as well as hi-tech hacks. Hell, I can fool a fingerprint reader with a couple of household chemicals and a packet of Gummi bears.terry flores19th Nov 2008 -
Re: You miss the point.
Ah, I think there is a flaw in your logic there. If he had suggested you could choose between multiple methods then sure, more opportunities to spoof them because you only have to manage to bypass one, but adding additional layers of security doesn't make the initial layers any less secure (at least not in any reasonably well designed system).
These days you can't reasonably expect to make any system completely invulnerable. It's about making things as difficult as possible to deter the average joe.
How's getting mugged because you're carrying cash around for low-tech? I know which I would prefer.
DamienJ20th Nov 2008 -
No, the point is not missed...
RFID was not designed for secure operation. Physical contact is not necessary to be able to access the contents of the memory inside. Why do you think there are passport holders available now with shielding built into them? This is so the personal information is not stolen just by "near field" scanning for these devices.
Cell phones are easily lost or stolen. With this, lose your phone and watch your finances be destroyed. Someone needs to put a stop to the insanity.
n0oeg4th Dec 2008 -
amen!
You said it, brother. Why can't people see this for what it is? There is NO NEED for this technology, what's the dang rush?
The ability to track everyone, or to cut you off (financially) if they don't like you is the real goal here.
pgit4th Dec 2008 -
RE: Mobile industry calls for RFID payment push
Not a good idea at all. There was an expose' on one of the news channels about how easy it is to steal someone's account number from RFID credit cards. They had a hacker show them how it was done with a PDA and a RFID receiver under their jacket. All they had to do was walk within 1 foot of the victim and the receiver pulled the info from the card. Now they want to do the same with cellphones, talk about a completely unsecure device. People's bluetooth connections have been hacked and their entire phone's contents have been looked at. If these chips are installed, we as consumers should demand the option to be able to disable the RFID chip. I will not be forced into this nonsense.
Scotsman82820th Nov 2008 -
RE: Mobile industry calls for RFID payment push
surely it would be simple to prevent someone hacking into the phone's RFID. If I don't want someone to hack into my bluetooth I just turn off my bluetooth and problem solved. If you could some how prevent the RFID chip being all RFIDy by simply pushing a button in your phones OS then problem solved. Also rather than letting every new scanner scan indiscriminately why not insist that ever time you wish to allow a new company to access your RFID you first give it permission. If it is not possible to save all the risk by doing this then RFID is too primitive to be used in this manner and a revised system should be designed.
DarthCyclist21st Nov 2008 -
to primative
I think you are just starting to see the light. RFID is definately to primative. Not only that though, but all near field stuff will be hackable in a way shorter time than anyone wants to admit. WPA was suppose to be uncrackable for decades, but someone recently did it with 8 PS3s clustered together.... go figure... and once it is cracked then it becomes easier to do with less hardware etc....atomicsupergeek4th Dec 2008 -
RE: Mobile industry calls for RFID payment push
My only bug bear, being a south african consumer where mobile rates and banking charges both border on daylight robbery already, is that by tying this to a sim card all that is going to happen to me is that I will be charged ridiculous rates for what should be a free service in any other market (as a value add to beat out competition rather than a new revenue stream)
Otherwise I have a chipped credit card, and the improvement insecurity is great!
NFC will be secure, but whether or not i'll use it depends on my greedy service providers.
robrobstation23rd Nov 2008
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
Facebook Activity
