In the course of the corona pandemic, more and more consumers are making contactless payments. This works with smartphones as well as with newer credit and debit cards. But how secure is cashless payment?
In the course of the corona pandemic, contactless payment with EC and credit cards and smartphones is being offered in almost every drugstore, supermarket or outlet.
Using so-called “Near Field Communication” (NFC), data can be exchanged between the debit or credit card and a special card reader. As a result, amounts can be paid at the checkout by simply holding out the money card; for amounts up to 25 euros, no authentication by entering the PIN or signature is required for the contactless payment process.
The advantages of contactless payment are particularly evident in times of the corona pandemic: The payment process, especially for small items, is significantly accelerated and touching the card reader to enter the PIN is also avoided.
Contactless payment: How secure is paying with NFC?
In principle, contactless payment via NFC can be regarded as comparatively safe. Because in order to be able to trigger the data transfer via radio, the distance between the reader and the chip on the bank card or the smartphone must not exceed four centimeters.
A third-party device can only access the data during the payment process if it is held exactly in the maximum four centimeter gap between the card reader and the means of payment; a rather unlikely situation in everyday life. The same applies to situations such as in a crowded subway. Because here, too, the third-party device should be no more than four centimeters away from the card or smartphone chip and the user would have to know exactly where the chip is or know that the consumer has the corresponding software active on the smartphone.
At the request of the online portal Welt der Wunder, the consumer advice center has so far only reported a few cases of abuse.
Nevertheless, caution is advised
Even if contactless payment can generally be regarded as more secure, it cannot be ruled out that criminals can steal your data.
For example, by encrypting your information, the so-called “Host Card Emulation” technology (HCE), the smartphone is more protected against manipulated reading devices than your bank card, which forwards your payment data (your credit card number) 1:1 to the device. Nevertheless, there is a possibility that the app that can be used to activate NFC payment cannot be completely protected against professional hacking attacks. If your smartphone has been infected with a virus, you should definitely have your bank card blocked.
Your bank card is protected by requiring authentication by entering a PIN or signature between individual payment orders via NFC.
Basically, contactless payment can be seen as a good alternative to paying with cash. The payment process is largely secure. However, you should also exercise caution here and check in which shops you want to make contactless payments and regularly check your smartphone for malicious software.
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