Could worries over the safety of use hold back adoption of this technology?
As security is one of the main concerns voiced by consumers and is one of the top issues faced by mobile payments providers, the news regarding the growth of threats next year is not entirely welcome.
According to a recent study, the more popular the technology becomes, the greater the number of threats.
Mobile payments, like online banking, brings financial access and technology together. Though its use has been picking up, it has in no way reached the mainstream at this point. For this reason, the focus of would-be attackers has remained elsewhere, where the opportunities are larger. However, predictions from ThreatMetrix, a cybercrime security solutions company, have shown that as the technology truly picks up so will the attempts by fraudsters to take advantage of the private and financial data they can swipe.
As security is a primary worry among consumers with regards to mobile payments, this could delay adoption.
According to the ThreatMetrix chief technology officer, Andreas Baumhof, “This year, cybercriminals have become so advanced that security professionals are struggling to detect many of their attacks in a timely manner.” He then went on to ad that “As nearly every industry is increasingly targeted, businesses and consumers must make cybersecurity a top priority in 2013 to prevent fraud and malware attacks.”
The company has just released a report that has revealed the leading risks and trends regarding cybersecurity that the company is predicting for next year. This includes threats against mobile payments, and other emerging and alternative forms of transactions.
The report also indicated that beyond mobile payments threats, financial institutions and retailers will also be increasingly targeted, especially the latter group. These will involve malware attacks and will focus on the companies where the protection for those specific channels have been lacking.
As financial institutions tend to have higher security in place, the report stated that it is likely that the mobile payments attacks will become more common among retailers, instead. This places a significant amount of responsibility on the consumer to protect themselves against attackers who would attempt to steal their financial and personal information during or following a purchase.
