Abstract

The advent of Near Field Communication (NFC) has given rise to several interesting applications under short-range radio technology. Perhaps the most exciting of these is card emulation. Launched in September 2011 [23], the "Google Wallet" application is one of the frontrunners of this technology. More than a year after its launch, there is clearly much interest in the commercial potential of mobile wallets by a variety of organizations in the communications and financial industries and beyond. This paper describes the working of NFC and contactless smartcards along with a brief introduction to the said mobile payment system. It also provides an evaluative study on the operation and performance of Google Wallet. A comparative study of Mobile Payment Solutions is also elucidated. Past and existing vulnerabilities of the system are discussed in detail along with noteworthy examples of infiltrations. The significant threat vectors to an NFC enabled mobile device are also examined with practical attack scenarios. Additionally, safeguards that the Wallet currently uses are evaluated. The paper is concluded by pondering on if and when such systems will become as ubiquitous as the physical wallet. For the reader's reference, the phrase "Google Wallet" in this paper refers to Google Wallet version R79v5 as of September 2012.

References

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