Mobile Payments
Secure Your Mobile Payments with VASCO DIGIPASS OTP

Overview:

Mobile payments are an emerging and rapidly-growing alternative payment method, already quite popular in Europe and Asia. Rather than pay by cash, check, or credit card, an individual can opt to use their mobile phone to pay for an ever-increasing range of (digital) goods and services. Because of their quick transaction speed and convenience, mobile payments are gaining popularity as a method of paying for small-ticket items, such as:

• Music, videos, ringtones, online game subscriptions, wallpapers, and other digital goods
• Transportation fare (bus, subway, or train), parking meters, and other services
• Books, magazines, tickets, and other hard goods

Some mobile payment solutions are also used in developing countries for micropayments.

Goal:

Mobile payment is quickly becoming the preferred method of payment upon checkout at e-commerce sites like online gaming sites. After undergoing a two-factor authentication process involving both PIN and one-time password verification, the customer’s mobile account is charged for the purchase. This particular type of mobile payment method yields the following benefits:

Security
Two-factor authentication prevents fraud, thus providing a secure alternative to credit cards.

Fraud Reduction
Because the payment is made using a mobile phone, no credit card information is stored by the merchant, eliminating the opportunity for hackers or employees to compromise card information.

Defense
Using one-time passwords, the transaction can be verified to have originated from the exact phone registered for a specific user.

Easy
It is just another payment option available at checkout.

Fast
Most transactions are completed in under 10 seconds.

Proven
70% of all digital content purchased online in some parts of Asia use the direct mobile billing method with one-time passwords.

Threats:

Once a method of payment has achieved widespread use, it will become the target of hackers and thieves. Consider the security dilemmas associated with one of the most popular methods of payment: credit cards. With all the security gaps inherent in credit cards, a mobile platform is even more vulnerable still. Because a mobile platform has the added vulnerability of being a “mini-computer”, it can be targeted using techniques that are much less obvious than those associated with credit cards. For example, unlike credit cards, a breach in mobile security cannot simply be detected within the computer infrastructure in the form of viruses, malware, and man-in-the-middle attacks. Mobile security attacks are much more elusive.

Approach:

By combining DIGIPASS authentication with your current mobile payment application, you can provide your customers with an easy, convenient and secure payment alternative. VASCO’s solution can reside seamlessly within your mobile payments application via direct integration of the DIGIPASS API.