Tag: near field communications

The contactless tech is now working to catch up within the mobile ticketing space.

ABI Research has released a prediction that NFC technology is making some progress in terms of gaining ground toward QR codes and that this will progress over the next half decade.

It also predicted that in that time there will be 34 billion tickets that will be delivered by way of mobile devices.

The massive number of tickets delivered over smartphones, tablets (and likely wearables, considering the direction that the trend is taking) will define a number of tech trends, particularly when it comes to the time of authentication. This area is currently dominated by QR codes, NFC technology, SMS Bluetooth Smart, mobile wallets, and dedicated apps.

Currently, there is a considerable lead in QR codes over NFC technology for this purpose.

The prediction ran from 2014 through 2019 and it predicted that QR codes will hold their top position at 48 percent of all the tickets that will be delivered over mobile devices. That said NFC technology will make it to 30 percent, and other methods such as SMS will make up the remaining 22 percent. This will mean that near field communication will experience the fastest level of growth throughout that period of time, with a CAGR of more than 100 percent.

QR codes have their massive head start behind their vast majority and the fact that they will be able to hold their position in the lead with mobile ticketing. These quick response codes have already solidly established themselves in a number of large companies, such as Masabi, for ticketing deliveries, allowing it to become well established in ticketing apps such as train and stadium tickets, events tickets, and airline boarding passes. Having gained that position, it is more challenging for other forms of tech to carve out their own place.

The mobile ticketing market is being seen as a solid example of an area in which these new forms of tech are now becoming a regular part of everyday life. NFC technology has seen its struggles but it looks like there are some areas in which it is continuing to experience a notable enough amount of growth.

A hidden antenna was used by researchers to test the ease of sensitive customer data theft.

A paper was recently published, entitled “Eavesdropping near field contactless payments: a quantitative analysis”, which detailed a study in which researchers examined mobile safety attacks through NFC technology security meant for contactless payments transactions.

The researchers made an antenna that they hid on shopping carts using low cost electronics.

Their explanation for this effort was to test NFC technology security with a near field communication inductive loop antenna, which was employed for mimicking an ISO 14443 transmission. Then, in order to be able to actually “eavesdrop”, there was a second, identical inductive loop antenna that was installed onto a shopping cart, which they modified in order to transmit in a way that was like an antenna.

Even though NFC technology security has been touted as safe, researchers found the opposite.

The researchers in this study found that although near field communication based contactless payments are becoming increasingly popular in the United Kingdom and Europe, and that consumers are trusting this tech as safe, these transactions are actually more vulnerable than had previously been thought.

The belief that there could be problems is not new as some had already been pointing out certain vulnerabilities – three, in fact – as early as 2008. Since that time, hacking into near field communications transmissions for payments and directly relaying, skimming, or eavesdropping on sensitive data transmissions from customers has been in the spotlight.

Until now, services had not known how to make this tech both simple and reliable. This is how these transactions are now often viewed. However, these researchers, who are from the University of Surrey, have now looked further into the safety of the tech through the use of cheap and easily accessible electronics from stores. They were able to measure the distance, success rates, and a number of other factors.

What they showed, was that NFC technology security isn’t as high as some might think. They determined that if an attacker with the same equipment was to head out and “shop” for a consumer’s payments data, it would not be difficult for a cyber attack to occur through the use of these electronics, while pointing a shopping cart at the victim as he or she pays for the purchase.