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Hackers Hit Samsung's LoopPay, Firm Says Samsung Pay, Customer Data Safe


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hen reports surfaced that LoopPay was the target of a sophisticated attack icon-inline-shop.gif by a group of government-affiliated Chinese hackers, Samsung was quick to throw water on the media fire. That’s because Samsung based its brand new mobile payment system on technology acquired in a LoopPay buyout.

Hackers breached LoopPay in March, The New York Times reported yesterday. That was just after Samsung laid down over $250 million to buy the company. The attackers are thought to have broken into LoopPay’s corporate network but the production system that helps manage payments remained secure, according to the Times.

“The article raised questions as to the effect of this on the recently launched Samsung Pay service,” Samsung said in a statement. “The first thing to know is that Samsung Pay was not impacted and at no point was any personal payment information at risk. This was an isolated incident that targeted the LoopPay office network, which is a physically separate network from Samsung Pay. The LoopPay incident was resolved and had nothing to do with Samsung Pay.”

It’s Worth Reiterating

Samsung launched Samsung Pay in September with major payment networks like MasterCard and Visa on board and strong and a growing ecosystem of key financial partners like American Express, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, and U.S. Bank to provide greater flexibility, access, and choice for customers while enabling simple and secure payment experiences.

According to the company, Samsung Pay has the potential to be accepted at approximately 30 million merchant locations worldwide. Out of the gate, consumers with Android Pay installed on their smartphones can pay for goods at over 1 million locations in the U.S. That makes it an attractive target for hackers. With the Times article raising concerns, Samsung did not hesitate to make a full statement.

“It’s worth reiterating that the reported incident was related to LoopPay’s office network which handles e-mail, file servers and printing within the company. This network is physically separate from the production network that handles payment transactions and run by Samsung,” the company said in the statement. “The incident involved three servers on LoopPay’s internal office network.”

Yes, This Hurts

Samsung said that LoopPay followed its standard incident response procedures and acted immediately and comprehensively as soon as the incident was discovered, bringing in two independent professional security icon-inline-shop.gif teams.

“LoopPay immediately identified and quarantined the targeted devices, conducted a thorough and extensive sweep of LoopPay’s entire system, and put additional safeguards in place,” the company said. “Again, Samsung, Samsung Pay, and Samsung users were not affected. We’re confident that Samsung Pay is safe and secure. Each transaction uses a digital token to replace a card number. The encrypted token combined with certificate information can only be used once to make a payment. Merchants and retailers can’t see or store the actual card data icon-inline-shop.gif.”

But will the incident nevertheless cause consumers to question the security of mobile payment solutions?

We asked Greg Sterling, vice president of strategy and insight at the Local Search Association. He told us consumer surveys indicate that concerns about mobile payment security is one of the factors holding some people back from using these systems. With that in mind, this news can’t help the cause for Samsung, Apple, Google or any other players in the market.

“Samsung denies that the core payment systems were breached in any way,” Sterling said. “However if the perception takes hold that Samsung Pay is not secure or vulnerable to hackers it could hurt adoption, yes.”

Source http://www.toptechnews.com/article/index.php?story_id=020000MIW25G
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you must give the information about the source from where it is posted. this is must.

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