Mobile money transforming transactions in the Pacific
Friday, May 18, 2012 - 23:05
Cell phone users in Tonga can now use their mobile phones in much the same way as they can use a plastic banking card to pay for goods and services in shops, and they do not need a bank account to transfer and receive money from overseas.
Please subscribe to access premium content.
- Read more about Mobile money transforming transactions in the Pacific
- Log in or register to post comments
Comments
Although the communication
Although the communication range of NFC is limited to a few centimeters, NFC alone does not ensure secure communications. NFC offers no protection against eavesdropping and can be vulnerable to data modifications.
Ensuring security for NFC data will require the cooperation of multiple parties: device providers, who will need to safeguard NFC-enabled phones with strong cryptography and authentication protocols; customers, who will need to protect their personal devices and data with passwords, keypad locks, and anti-virus software; and application providers and transaction parties, who will need to use anti-virus and other security solutions to prevent spyware and malware from infecting systems.
The RF signal for the wireless data transfer can be picked up with antennas. The distance from which an attacker is able to eavesdrop the RF signal depends on numerous parameters, but is typically a small number of meters.
Losing the NFC RFID card or the mobile phone will open access to any finder and act as a single-factor authenticating entity. Mobile phones protected by a PIN code acts as a single authenticating factor. A way to defeat the lost-property threat requires an extended security concept that includes more than one physically independent authentication factor.
(Source: Wikipedia)
In other words, if the phone (with the money chip) gets lost or stolen, your money will be gone, too.