Paying by Mobile Phones

Gemalto has started providing BASE, a Belgian mobile operator, with the capabilties for performing secure payment via SMS. This service lets users pay with their mobile phones, so that merchants are paid immediately.

Payees enter a payment request into their mobile phone. The payer receives this request, specifying the amount and the name of the payee, on their handset screen and accepts the transaction by entering the code they've selected at service activation. Then both the customer and the merchant receive an SMS confirming the transaction.

Banxafe is the security technique developed by Banksys to guarantee reliability of bankcard payments over the Internet. There are currently 1 million cards with Banxafe in the market. M-banxafe, short for "Banxafe Mobile," is the banxafe implementation for mobile devices. M-banxafe technology enables a link between a SIM card and the subscriber's banking card and account. M-banxafe security is via a public key authentication applet on the SIM card. A bank PIN accesses the applet and generates a digital signature which is authenticated by a PKI certificate. At that point, a link is authorized with the virtual wallet containing duplicates of user's cards. Private card information is not stored at merchant sites.

Gemalto also claims to be the first company with a smart identity credential for U.S. federal employees and contractors that works with both existing HID physical access control systems as well new ones being planned to comply with the federal requirements. Gemalto’s credential supposedly makes it easier for federal agencies and departments to move to the new Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards required by a Presidential directive. The new credentials also include Gemalto technology for digital security applications like desktop logon, network access, and electronic document signature.

Gemalto’s approach combines on a single credential Gemalto’s dual contact/contactless PIV card technology with proximity technology under license from HID Global Corporation. The new identification card meets the applicable standards for the PIV cards as defined by the Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS 201) and is listed on the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Approved Product List (APL). The GSA APL governs which products and services may be purchased by government agencies.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 10:34 AM  Permalink