Samsung began a revolution with NFC when it launched devices capable of S-Beam. Now it plans on taking it a step forward by enabling NFC mobile payments with its future devices. It will load the Visa payWave application on all of its future devices, which will allow consumers to “wave and pay” for their transactions. Dr. Won-Pyo Hong, president and head of the Media Solution Center at Samsung Electronics, said, “Samsung has been a pioneer in NFC devices and is again leading the way in enabling NFC-based mobile payments. The partnership with Visa represents a step towards a global mobile payment platform.”

Alongside Samsung’s devices being able to make NFC mobile payments, Samsung will also allow banks to be able to load personal account information onto Samsung’s devices over-the-air. The transfer of information will be secured by a security chip inside of Samsung’s devices that utilizes the Visa Mobile Provisioning Service linked to Samsung’s Key Management System.

ABI Research believes that 1.95 billion devices will be NFC-enabled by the year 2017. Samsung wants to be the jump-starter that makes NFC-mobile payments commonplace. With it’s huge market share, and large number of loyal followers, Samsung is one of the best candidates to popularize NFC-payments in countries like the United States.

[via Business Wire]

The sources claim that the attackers used a small number of reloadable prepaid debit cards to pull cash out of ATMs in at least a dozen countries. According, to the sources the crooks took approximately $9 million in only a few hours. The sources also claim that around New Year’s Eve the group struck again.

The second attack occurred on ATM networks in India and resulted in the thieves making off with a little less than $2 million according to investigators. This sort of attack is typically avoided because the reloadable, prepaid debit cards are limited to low dollar amounts being withdrawn within a 24-hour period. However, the criminals were somehow able to increase or completely eliminate those withdrawal limits for the accounts they control.

Visa says that the attacks were made possible because the hackers were able to gain access to issuer authorization systems and card parameter information. Once the hackers had access to that information, they were able to manipulate daily withdrawal amount limits, card balances, and other parameters. Visa says that in some instances over $500,000 was withdrawn from a single card within 24 hours.

[via Krebsonsecurity]

This IPO is having several effects on those investment groups that got in on the business early, with such groups as Elevation Partners – associated with U2′s Bono holding a 2.3 percent stake in the company and raking in what may be $1.5 billion USD by the end of the day according to MTV. By Sarah Kessler of Mashable’s count, Mark Zuckerberg has jumped between the number 29th and 24th wealthiest people on earth today with a prospective $19.1 billion USD sitting in his pocket today via his 503.6 million shares and options in Facebook. This puts Zuckerberg in contention with Amazon’s own Jeff Bezos who currently sits in the number 23 spot on Bloomberg’s Billionairs Index.

For those of you counting, Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin sit at numbers 30 and 31 on the index today. As for the stock trends today for Facebook, the social network has thus far (at 3 PM EDT, specifically) accounted for a massive 6.9% of the total US stock market volume for the day, that also being 22% of the trading done in the entire NASDAQ composite. Have a peek in our timeline below to stay in-tune with everything that’s happened surrounding Facebook’s IPO today and stick with us as we wind up the end here in just a bit.

Start your journey down accessories way with none other than the folks who brought you the PowerBag with the myCharge extended battery lineup 2012 refresh in full hands-on fashion. A brand new company you’re going to want to keep your eyes on is NEXGEN Skins for their dimensional gadget coverings of all kinds – a completely new solution! During the second of two big keynote presentations, VISA President John Partridge brought on the accessories talk as he announced that they’d “moved beyond” NFC for their mobile payments across the earth – they’ll still use NFC of course, but it’s bigger than all that!

One device that sort of bridges the gap between device and accessory is the Jabra Supreme UC Bluetooth headset with its flip-up microphone and noise cancellation in droves. Energizer brought on some multi-power chargers with clamps and lights. On the truly thin side, Digipower ChargeCard mini powerpacks stole the mini side of the show.

In what was easily the most impressive display of the show, Tech21 and their “Impactology” brought on a hammer to the goo – and tossed an iPhone against a wall to boot! The fashion forward folks at Moshi brought the Moshi iGlaze Versacover to the show to show everyone what it means to take an Apple design to the next level – believe it or not!

Otterbox brought their A-game with a collection of new cases for the HTC One series and DROID Incredible 4G the same day it was announced! AT&T brought us to a house where they had a whole array of accessories brought together to form the Voltron of home automation systems: AT&T Digital Life in person! SuperTooth came on strong with some brand new SuperTooth Bluetooth Melody Headphones in a lovely shade of purple.

We saw a cool new in-car Clarion Next Gate iPhone dashboard controller with tap-tastic features onboard a 7-inch display. The folks at HzO Waterblock Hydrophobic smartphone coatings showed us what it really means to be waterproof. And the hits just kept on coming! Have a peek at our [CTIA 2012 portal] for our entire collection of on-site adventures as well!

This V.me platform has users “removing the friction” with mobile payment, with just a name and a password required for making transactions. Starting with eCommerce, working with mobile, and accessing payments in person. In the very near future you’ll be seeing the V.me by Visa checkout logo for mobile payments across the USA. “We are uniquely equipped to handle mobile commerce,” said Partridge, “equipped to handle transactions in real time.”

VISA here, says Partridge, is able to do instant checks on fraud, seeing the future in which “mobile payments are a part of every day life.” To do this, Partridge has noted that security is at the forefront, because “without trust, a payment system cannot thrive.” The future of commerce according to VISA is “a world where people use mobile phones, tablets, and other electronic devices to handle their money.”

Check out the rest of our CTIA 2012 content in our CTIA 2012 portal all week long – and let us know if there’s anything you want to see!

Also be sure to check out our giant CTIA 2012 portal to see all the content we’ve got up so far, as well as our CTIA Live portal to see any and all on-site and live action. We’re likely to hear some announcements today on how Firefox is innovating on the software front, how Spotify will be expanding across several new platforms with their ever-growing music platform, and how VISA will be working with mobile payments to make the mobile world a place where payments for everyday items are a reality.

Check the timeline below for the newest stories coming from Electronic Arts – EA Games has been under some fire recently for their treatment of the mobile world of games, but we’re guessing this won’t be addressed at length here today. We’ll see though, as speakers at CTIA are supposed to keep it real with pushing the wireless world forward in each and every way, even in the world of mobile games. The action starts immediately if not soon!

“The Samsung Galaxy S III has been created with our human needs and capabilities in mind” DJ Lee, head of Sales and Marketing at Samsung Mobile Communications said of the partnership, “and is the ideal device to showcase the ease and convenience of Visa’s mobile payment application at the London 2012 Olympic Games.” The regular Galaxy S III, announced last week, also has NFC, though no specific payment deals have been announced.

Visa’s payWave system requires loading a Visa app on the phone and then holding the handset near an NFC-enabled terminal. Transactions over £20 ($32) require a passcode be entered on the phone, and the app shows a history of transactions and the overall account balance.

Work on the Visa NFC payment phone project with Samsung began more than a year ago, with the companies promising an Olympics 2012 tie-in back in April 2011. At the time, it was suggested that the handset would also be put on general sale.

Garcia says that Global Payments is still processing Visa transactions, but that being dropped from the list will distance it from other partners. He believes that the company will be reinstated eventually and that the situation has “absolutely” been contained. Regulators, industry third parties, and law enforcement are all involved in the ongoing investigations into the security breach.

The hack was revealed last Friday, when both Visa and MasterCard alerted their cardholders of possible identity theft and illicit charges due to compromised accounts. At the time it was estimated that only about 50,000 accounts may have been affected, but that number has been bumped to as many as 1.5 million accounts.

However, Global Payments says that only credit card numbers had been stolen and that cardholder names, addresses, and Social Security numbers had not been obtained. This seems to conflict with what Visa and MasterCard reported, which said that Track 1 data, including cardholder names and account numbers, along with Track 2 data were both accessed.

Furthermore, Visa said the breach took place between January 21 and February 25, but Global Payments said that the breach was detected and reported in early March. But all agencies are emphasizing that cardholder will not be responsible for any fraudulent charges.

[via Associated Press]

I think PayPal desperately needs some capable competition and hope V.me can provide that. The V.me service will not be limited to use with Visa credit cards only. People using the service will be able to place money into their V.me account using a Visa, MasterCard, or even their own bank accounts. The V.me account can then be used to pay for things online using a user name and a password.

Later in 2012 Visa will then roll out an expansion that allows the V.me accounts to be used to pay for things at the register using NFC tech. That sounds pretty good. The service digital wallet is in closed beta testing right now. I don’t see any way to just get the funds back off the card at ATMs, and to fight PayPal that needs to be a capability. This sounds like a competitor to Google Wallet as well.

[via AllthingsD]

So you’ve got these Olympic games, right? And you’ve got a device that we must assume has a camera somewhere on it – and NFC for mobile payments. You know what that means? It means that these games are set to be the most socially shared and easily payed-for Olympics of all time! That is, if all goes according to plan. Pocket Lint’s Stuart Miles was at the VISA Europe presentation at the company’s first European security summit in Frankfurt, Germany – there it was Sandra Alzetta, Head of innovation and new product development at Visa Europe that confirmed the phone to be entirely on-track.

This device will be a brand new Samsung device, it’ll have “Special Olympic content”, and it’ll be commercially available globally before, during, and after the actual London events in 2012. In addition, VISA has mentioned the possibility that NFC-laden microSD cards might be in the works as well – though whether for this event or outside this event is still unclear. What is clear is that VISA has confirmed that this phone will be working with “almost 160,000 terminals in Europe, including the 70,000 shops, bars, and restaurants in the UK.”

Sounds like a widespread winner to me – now they just have to sell it! Note that the image above also comes from the initial announcement in which VISA and Samsung reps are holding up devices that very much appear to be “Galaxy” related, this leading us to believe that Android will be in the mix – or maybe it’s Bada?! That’d be a pretty good tactic to get that OS out there, boy howdy.

The NFC stickers were always going to be at a disadvantage in comparison to the Nexus S 4G implementation. In that handset, the Secure Element is a separate chip that Google says is “isolated from your phone’s main operating system and hardware” and uses “encrypted protocols to enforce access control.” PIN access is required whenever a payment is to be made, temporarily enabling the NFC chip and unlocking your card credentials so that they can be read by the vendor’s device.

With no access to an in-phone Secure Element, and presumably a passive NFC chip – as used in various existing wireless payment cards – Google Wallet stickers would lack those same security policies. Indeed, according to Google’s original outline, the stickers are only intended to be linked with a single credit card, using the cloud to communicate with the Google Wallet app itself. That isn’t the case with the Nexus S 4G system, though: Google makes clear in its FAQ that no network connection is required for the phone to make payments, only that it be powered on.

It’s looking increasingly likely that the Google Wallet stickers don’t entirely fit in with Google’s overall plans for the service. Although Google has licensed Visa payWave - which uses passive NFC rather than a Secure Element system, and is limited to sub-$25 transactions – the payments provider confirmed, it will be offered as another option in the existing Google Wallet experience rather than as a simpler way for non-NFC devices to join the party. ”We look forward to bringing Google Wallet to more phones in the future” the company said on launching the service yesterday, but with a variety of different NFC payment systems in operation worldwide, it could be that buying a new Android phone with the requisite Secure Element and NFC hardware is the only way to get onboard.

Google Wallet lets you pay for any of your purchases at participating locations by simply tapping your Nexus S 4G on a NFC-equipped terminal at the register. Payments work with your Citi MasterCard credit card or Google’s PrePaid card, which can be funded by any credit card, including those from Visa, American Express, and Discover.

The Google Wallet service was first announced back in May with initial launch partners being Citi, MasterCard, First Data, and the Now Network carrier. Visa, Discover, and American Express will also be joining the platform soon with support for their NFC specs to be added in future versions of Google Wallet.

For more details on Google Wallet, make sure to visit the official page here.

The ISIS network at one time had to scale back its ambitions in the face of Google Wallet and potential competition from Visa. Instead of rolling out a more comprehensive network, it seemed like the group had to push forward smaller incremental offerings to catch up with Google Wallet. But today’s announcement tips the power balance with all four major credit card companies now on board with ISIS. This leaves Google with only a partnership with the NowNetwork carrier and the double-dipping MasterCard.

ISIS was formed by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to launch an NFC-based mobile payment network by 2012 that was originally intended to usurp the established credit card payment networks. That didn’t sit well with Visa and MasterCard, but it looks like they’ve worked things out. Now, with ISIS being comprised of three of the four major U.S. wireless carriers and all four of the major credit card companies, Google is suddenly the odd kid out. We’ll have to wait and see if all the major credit card companies also sign on board for Google Wallet.

[via Thisismynext]

Thanks to NFC (Near Field Communications) technology, which is seeing imminent deployment in new mobile devices, very soon you will be able to leave your credit cards at home and pay for store purchases with just the swipe of your smartphone or tablet. This type of transaction system is already widely used in Asia and abroad, but has been slow to pick up here in the U.S.

Several big companies are vying to be the first to launch a successful mobile payment network, but Visa certainly has the best advantage. They are already ranked number one as the most widely used credit card network with 1.8 billion card users, 16,000 banks, and is accepted by over 30 million stores and other merchants. Following Visa, in order of ranking, is MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.

However, being the biggest isn’t their only advantage. They’ve also already been deploying NFC in the form of digital smartcards with its PayWave program. Their PayWave technology allows users to insert a microSD card into their smartphones to get the same NFC capabilities. The PayWave program already has 150,000 terminals deployed, including at McDonalds restaurants and in New York taxis.

Visa’s announcement is “obviously the most comprehensive solution that’s been announced to date,” said Gartner analyst Mark Hung. “If anybody can make it happen, it would be Visa and [secondly] MasterCard. The fall 2011 availability date in North America is impressive. This is a significant step forward for the mobile wallet application.”

But it’s not all smooth sailing for Visa. Even though all new smartphones will be NFC-enabled, Visa still has to get phone makers to license and integrate their PayWave technology for their system to work. On top of this, if Visa charges merchants additional fees or requires the purchasing of additional equipment or software, adoption of their system could also be hindered.

Nonetheless, Visa may still be well ahead of the competition. Google has been pushing for NFC, with NFC chips to come in all future Android devices. They’ve been modest in their approach, using NFC first for their Places and coupons programs, although recent reports indicate they are actively recruiting to further expand into mobile payments.

The ISIS initiative, a venture formed by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have recently scaled back their NFC plans. Originally touting to completely replace traditional payment networks such as Visa, ISIS now will work more like a digital copy of your existing Visa credit card.

Sprint, on the other hand, has made an ambitious announcement to be the first to launch a mobile system later this year, that will make revenue from advertising partnerships rather than merchant transaction fees.

The full details of their new system should be revealed in a webcast scheduled for later today. We’ll keep you updated.

[via ComputerWorld]

Visa has said they will be making an announcement this week concerning mobile payments, so Google is already facing stiff competition. Visa CEO Joseph Saunders has said that a good mobile payment system will have 5 characteristics, “Convenience and simplicity, standardization, interoperability, global accessibility, and security.” Quite makes sense to us. Whoever can accomplish that first will likely take the lead in the market.

Google is already working with French point-of-sale device manufacturer, Ingenico to bring NFC-based coupons to Android phones, and has also rolled out NFC stickers in five US cities. These efforts are more based on distributing coupons and checking in, but are using the same technology, and show that Google is deeply committed to NFC and expanding its use.

[via The Next Web]

It’s hard to predict what Visa’s strategy for mobile payments will be as they’ve remained quite mum about it. But they have been heavily pouring money into the space, recently investing in Square, the mobile merchant services company, whose device lets customers accept credit card payments via their smartphones. They also partnered with Gap in a program that alerts customers of discounts on jeans and apparel via text messages when the customer is in the vicinity of a Gap retail store.

“We’ve been reluctant to talk about it until we have put together…an appropriate [response], where we can tell you something positive and significant,” said Saunders. He also believes that for their strategy to be viable, it must address five characteristics: Convenience and simplicity, standardization, interoperability, global accessibility, and security.

“None of the solutions we have seen from competitors is comprehensive enough because they don’t address all of these criteria at once. Visa has long delivered solutions at the physical point of sale that passed this test and we are applying the same standard in the online and mobile arena,”

This feels a bit like a slap to the face for the competing ISIS mobile payment venture formed by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. ISIS started off with bold claims to completely replace credit card networks with their own mobile payment network, but recently scaled back those ambitions. Another contender in the space, but with a more modest approach, is Google, who has already deployed trial programs for NFC-based Places and coupons.

[via AllThingsDigital]

First announced last November, ISIS was formed as a NFC-based payment network that would allow wireless customers with NFC-enabled devices to pay for purchases at retail shops using their mobile phones instead of using their cash or credit cards. Fees for these transactions would then be collected by the carriers and customers would maintain accounts directly with the carriers rather than the credit card companies.

Today’s announcement scales back those plans to a system that is more just a form of a “mobile wallet” that stores traditional credit card information rather than a completely new payment network. This decision not only shows the clout of traditional credit card companies such as Visa and MasterCard but also the precarious setup of ISIS from the start. ISIS had partnered with Discover, fourth place holder in card services, along with lesser known credit card issuer Barclaycard. That partnership and a slow timeline for a 2012 trial launch along with pressures from competing NFC services may have caused the scaling back for faster implementation.

Competing NFC services include Sprint, which announced a rapid timeline of launching trials starting in late 2011. Google has been even more swift, having already rolled out trials of its NFC-based Places and coupon service.

[via GigaOM]

You might also remember that back in March the major competitor to Square, VeriFone noted that Square needed to recall all of its readers because they lacked encryption at the read point. VeriFone claimed that the lack of encryption at the point that the card was scanned left the user’s credit card details open to a hacker. Square fired back and claimed that its readers were hunky-dory.

While Square was touting the investment from Visa, Square COO Keith Rabois wrote a blog post that basically validated everything VeriFone accused the Square reader of. The crux of the post was that Square would be meeting Visa’s industry standards, and those standards mean they have to encrypt all the credit card data, including the data at the point the information is read. Square will be releasing a new reader of the iPhone this summer that encrypts the data as soon as it is read, VeriFone was accurate after all.

[via TechCrunch]

The two companies plan to offer the smartphone to Olympic athletes but also put it on sale, with the promise of over 60,000 locations where the tap-payments will be accepted. It’s unclear whether other NFC-enabled devices, like the Samsung-made Nexus S, will also be able to use the system.

Of course, whether London will actually get the mobile payments system in time remains to be seen; it’s not the first time ambitious plans for Olympics-timed wireless systems have been scuppered. Talk of WiFi-enabling the London Underground system have collapsed after potential carrier and hardware partners balked at the idea of having to fund the whole thing themselves.

Press Release:

Samsung & Visa, Two Worldwide Olympic Sponsors, Join Forces to Enable Mobile Payments

Pioneering alliance to bring mobile payments to the UK and around the world in the run up to and during London 2012

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Samsung and Visa today announced plans to bring the latest innovation in payment technology to the market as part of their sponsorships of London 2012, enabling consumers to make mobile payments using the Samsung Olympic and Paralympic Games mobile handset. Before and during the Games, the innovation will transform the payment experience in London and globally, enabling faster, more convenient payments via mobile phone.

“We look forward to working with financial institutions and mobile operators alongside Samsung to make this initiative a success.”
Samsung and Visa’s new strategic alliance is designed to leave a lasting legacy in the market post-2012.

Samsung Electronics, the Worldwide Olympic Partner for Wireless Communications Equipment, and Visa, the Worldwide Olympic Partner and exclusive Payment Services sponsor are combining their sponsorship assets and leadership in technology to ensure that the Olympic and Paralympic Games mobile handset available to the general public will be equipped with technology that enables mobile payments, Near Field Communications (NFC) and Visa’s contactless payment technology. To make payments, customers simply select the Visa mobile contactless application, select pay and hold the phone in front of a contactless reader at the point of purchase.

Visa is working with banks and retailers worldwide to roll-out acceptance for Visa contactless cards, as well as mobile phones, as part of an industry wide roll-out of contactless technology. In London there are already more than 60,000 locations where contactless payments are accepted and contactless and electronic card payments will be available in the run-up to and during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. With the momentum to commercialise mobile payments globally, consumers will be able to make mobile contactless payments in the run up to and during the Games in many countries around the world.

Samsung and Visa will work together to provide the contactless enabled Olympics handset to Visa and Samsung sponsored athletes as part of this initiative. Samsung and Visa also plan to make the handset available for consumers to purchase through mobile network operators and other distributors. A Visa-enabled SIM card will be required for use with the device in order to make purchases at retailers who have the contactless payment system.

“Visa, like Samsung, shares the vision of leveraging our Olympic and Paralympic Games sponsorship to leave a lasting legacy in the market for banks, retailers, mobile operators and consumers. We are not only breaking new ground for Olympic partnerships, we are committed to enabling consumers to connect with mobile and contactless payments technology for 2012 and beyond,” said Peter Ayliffe, CEO of Visa Europe. “We look forward to working with financial institutions and mobile operators alongside Samsung to make this initiative a success.”

“Innovation is a key business driver for Visa and mobile payments are one of the main areas we’re focusing on. The Olympic and Paralympic Games enables us to accelerate our business goals and this partnership plays a large role in achieving them,” said Mariano Dima, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Payment Solutions at Visa Europe.

Samsung and Visa are committed to enabling consumers to create meaningful connections with the Olympic and Paralympic Games and enjoy a better, smarter life through the leading mobile payment technology. Samsung has demonstrated its leadership in NFC-enabled phone technology, since it launched one of the first commercial NFC phones in France in 2010. It then unveiled the industry’s first Android phone equipped with NFC capabilities last year, followed by the NFC-enabled bada smartphone, introduced at the Mobile World Congress 2011.

“As a pioneer in mobile technology, Samsung is striving for long term change in the way we use mobile payments. In London next year, we regard the greatest show on earth as the perfect opportunity to showcase how this technology can make a positive difference to people’s lives – enabling them to feel closer to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This mobile payment device will be available in the UK initially, and we plan to expand the service to other countries in Europe and around the world where contactless payment facilities are available in the near future,” said Seokpil Kim, President & CEO of Samsung Electronics Europe.

Gyehyun Kwon, Vice President & Head of Worldwide Sports Marketing, Samsung Electronics added, “This marks the very first partnership between two Worldwide Olympic Partners of the London 2012 Games. We are delighted to be joining forces with Visa to make the Olympic Games more accessible and convenient for everyone. This fits extremely well with our ambition to enable more people to participate in the Games through our smart technology.”

Visa and Samsung will work with mobile network operators, financial institutions and retailers around the world to bring the convenience, security and reliability of Visa’s contactless technology to mobile users worldwide. Currently, Visa mobile payments are being rolled out in countries across the globe including Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Brazil, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and the United States.

The new service is coming out of an agreement with CashEdge and Fiserve, which are two of the leading providers of electronic person-to-person payments, account transfer, and bill payment services. The agreement allows the two firms to access the VisaNet enabling them to integrate Visa personal payment into the person-to-person platform.

The bank an individual uses will need to be a participant in the system to send the money. According to Visa the participating bank will be able to select a Visa account number as the destination for funds when making a personal payment. The recipient’s 16-digit Visa account, email, or mobile number will be used to pay them directly. Visa expects the service to be available to customers by the second half of 2011.

Video demo after the cut

Since the NFC technology is embedded into the microSD card rather than the iPhone case or the iPhone itself, there’s a degree of cross-platform compatibility.  Assuming Visa offer a suitable app for your smartphone – and that said-smartphone has a microSD slot – you should be able to continue to use the modified card even if you decide to dump your iPhone.

Of course, Apple aren’t letting the NFC grass grow underneath them, and the company has already filed patent applications for various NFC-based ticket and mobile payment solutions that would be integrated into iPhones and other mobile devices.  There has been no sign of NFC hardware in the leaked iPhone HD prototypes we’ve seen to-date, but it’s possible that Apple could announce the functionality in their fourth-generation handset at WWDC 2010.

[via MobileCrunch]

The participating companies in the trial are giving out 400 different Samsung Star NFC handsets to visitors to the show. Using the handset the participants will be able to pay for food and drinks at the show. The trial devices are loaded with a €60 airtime credit and a La Caixa Visa Mobile Payment App.

Participating food vendors at the show will have contactless terminals at their booths where the user can hold the NFC phone to pay for items. Purchases under €10 need no pin number while purchases over €10 will require a pin to be entered before the transaction is charged.