Battle Looms Over Mobile Payments


The lines are drawn. The sides are sizing each other up. Apple is on one side with secure element, and Google and Microsoft are on the other side with host card emulation. Both are mobile payment systems for smartphones that rely on near-field communication technology. Apple fired the first shot with SE, and Google soon replied with HCE. And now both sides are ramping up after months of dela... » read more

Scare Of The Month: Whitebox Cryptography


A debate has been raging for some time about whether hardware is more secure than software. This story should provide plenty of fuel for debate. A few years ago, something called White Box Cryptography (WBC) was developed. This is a rather novel approach that attempts to implement cryptography algorithms in software, rather than hardware. The idea is to keep the cryptographic assets secure a... » read more

More Than Just Plastic


The magnetic strip credit card era is coming to an end. The technology is antiquated, prone to security vulnerabilities, and has no self-destruct capability if lost or stolen. In its place are near-field technologies coupled with smart devices—think Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, digital wallets, MasterCard's PayPass—and now near-field communication (NFC) chips inside of cards. But... » read more