Mobile payment security, threats, and challenges

Mobile payment systems can be divided into five categories including mobile payment at the POS, mobile payment as the POS, mobile payment platform, independent mobile payment system, and direct carrier billing. Although mobile payment has gained its popularity in many regions due to its convenience, it also faces many threats and security challenges. In this paper, we present a mobile payment processing model and introduce each type of mobile payment systems. We summarize the security services desired in mobile payment systems and also the security mechanisms which are currently in place. We further identify and discuss three security threats, i.e., malware, SSL/TLS vulnerabilities, and data breaches, and four security challenges, i.e., malware detection, multi-factor authentication, data breach prevention, and fraud detection and prevention, in mobile payment systems.