Qualcomm has disclosed that wallets such as Paytm and mobile banking applications in India doesn’t make effective use of hardware level security. If a transaction is made without any hardware security, then it will pose serious risk to the individual. Hence, the real concept of cashless economy cannot be actively implemented unless proper security are in place.
Commenting on the development, Sy Choudhury, Qualcomm senior director product management revealed that most of the wallet and mobile banking apps around the world doesn’t leverage hardware security. Since these app run in Android mode, the usernames and passwords can be easily stolen.
Choudhury added that they have identified several popular digital payment application, which doesn’t make use of hardware level security. The main reason for not using the security technology is because of the involvement of original equipment makers.
According to Strategy Analytics, Qualcomm has market share of 37 percent in the mobile processing market. Choudhury said that everyone is getting connected. Moreover, all people are getting authenticated by the smartphone.
It is difficult to find a handset, which is capable of supporting demonetization completely. Meanwhile, he stated that when you initially download a mobile banking app, you really don’t know it is make effective use of hardware security or not.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetization on November 8, Qualcomm is currently approaching digital payment companies to create an awareness among the need for a secure environment for processing payments on smartphone.
Furthermore, Choudhury said that the company is providing secure execution environment in the processor. If you are unaware, this layer separates transactions on smartphone from operating systems. Moreover, it will also check for the existence of any malware from effecting transactions.
Qualcomm is a great company which manufactures powerful smartphone processors. It remains to be see as to how companies respond to the initiative of Qualcomm.
Source: GadgetsNow
