Security Issues in Mobile Payment Systems

The national exchequer, the banking industry and regular citizens all incur a high overhead in using physical cash. Electronic cash and cell phone-based payment in particular is a viable alternative to physical cash since it incurs much lower overheads and offers more convenience. Because security is of paramount importance in financial transactions, it is imperative that attack vectors in this application be identified and analyzed. In this paper, authors investigate vulnerabilities in several dimensions - in choice of hardware/software platform, in technology and in cell phone operating system. Authors examine how existing and future mobile worms can severely compromise the security of transacting payments through a cell phone.