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Chinese hackers attacked the company behind Samsung Pay
A notorious group of state-sponsored Chinese hackers reportedly broke into the computer systems of LoopPay, the company that created the tech used in Samsung Pay. According to the NYT, the breach by the so-called Codoso Group occurred in March, well before Samsung acquired LoopPay for $250 million. The technology forms the core of Samsung's mobile payment system, which launched in the US on September 28th. However, Samsung says that "Samsung Pay was not impacted and at no point was any personal payment information at risk."
Samsung's mobile payments service is coming this summer
It's been just a couple of weeks since Samsung acquired mobile payments company LoopPay, but it's ready to announce the payment service based on LoopPay's tech: Samsung Pay. The service works with NFC (like Apply Pay and Google Wallet) and a new(ish) tech called Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST). It's the latter of the two options that has people excited, so let's take a minute to explain what exactly it is.
Samsung is buying LoopPay for its own spin on Apple Pay
Samsung is moving into mobile payments in a big way by acquiring LoopPay, a company that lets you pay for things with your phone similar to Apple Pay. LoopPay's technology (which, notably, isn't based on NFC like Google Wallet and Apple's option) mimics swiping a traditional credit card when you hold one of its smartphones cases up to a card reader. That gives it the advantage of working in 90 percent of existing payment terminals (or so the company says). We heard back in December that Samsung was eager to license LoopPay's technology, but now it looks like the two companies are jumping straight into marriage. But really, it's no wonder Samsung is eager to catch up with a wireless payment option of its own after Apple Pay's strong launch last fall. Heck, even the the U.S. government wants in on Apple Pay.
Samsung is searching for an answer to Apple Pay
Samsung is edging closer to debuting its own take on wireless payments, according to a report from Recode. Following the launch of Apple Pay earlier this year, Samsung has reportedly been trying to license technology from startup LoopPay to create a competing service. Although the site's anonymous sources agree that LoopPay and Samsung have been in talks, one says the deal "could still fall apart," even though another says a prototype payments system has already been created.
Loop turns almost any point-of-sale system into a mobile payment machine (hands-on)
In a small shop on University Avenue in Palo Alto, mobile payments vet Will Graylin proudly points out the point-of-sale (POS) system sitting next to the register. "This is a 13-year-old Hypercom," Will explains, emphasizing its age and the lack of modern mobile payment options. Then, he does something we haven't seen before: he puts his iPhone next to the mag-stripe reader, taps a button on his screen and the transaction gets processed as if he'd physically swiped his card. Companies like Google, Isis and MasterCard (among others) are competing with each other to see who can establish an NFC-based mobile payments standard and build a strong enough ecosystem to support it, but Will -- along with co-founder George Wallner -- is approaching the highly competitive and nascent smartphone commerce market from an entirely new direction. The duo's new company, known as Loop, is debuting a new platform that will let you use your phone to make payments on nearly 90 percent of all POS systems in the country, even if they don't have any tech embedded inside that's capable of accepting contactless payments. Continue with us below to see a hands-on gallery and a deeper explanation of what exactly makes this possible.
