The new mobile payment platform, Apple Pay, has gained hype as being a convenient way to pay for transactions digitally. Despite its convenience and ease, consumers and merchants are still wary of Apple Pay’s security features. While Apple has tried to ease consumers’ minds, even mentioning the word “security” 19 times in the product’s press release, security still remains an issue for most consumers.
Robert Neivert COO of Private.me, a client of Los Angeles tech public relations firm, PMBC Group, shared his insights on Apple Pay with Louis Bedigian of Benzinga. Neivert believes that Apple Pay is a step forward in technological security.
Neivert explained that by bringing all merchants under Apple’s umbrella, there would only be two parties involved in these digital transactions, the merchant and Apple. This is currently not the case, since consumers give out their credit card information to multiple vendors on a daily basis. By reducing the number of parties involved, Apple Pay can benefit consumers by making it more difficult for hackers to steal their information. Additionally, should a hack occur, the breach will only yield a singular transaction versus having millions of credit card numbers stolen.
Neivert went on to say that Apple Pay is helping eliminate the old credit card format, which makes it easier for hackers to steal credit card information by intercepting credit card numbers. Apple addressed this problem by providing a technology where single-use numbers are used for transactions. This way, if a credit card number is stolen, the single numbers are worthless.
Apple Pay’s technology provides a subtle ease for consumers by creating difficult steps that thieves must undergo in order to attack. However, Neivert stressed that this is does not guarantee absolute security. Like with any security feature it is only a matter of time before a large amount of money is invested in order to access Apple Pay consumers’ information.
In the end, Neivert emphasized that nothing is absolutely secure because attackers can always attempt to find new ways to hack even the savviest security features.
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