Apple Pay competitor CurrentC hacked

Apple Pay competitor CurrentC hacked

CurrentC, the mobile payment service from the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) consortium, has been hacked, according to Business Insider. The Apple Pay competitor, backed by large US retailers like Walmart, Best Buy and Target, which is let to launch to the public, has already seen user data leaked to unauthorized third-parties. CurrentC has begun...

Apple Pay competitor CurrentC hacked
CurrentC, the mobile payment service from the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) consortium, has been hacked, according to Business Insider. The Apple Pay competitor, backed by large US retailers like Walmart, Best Buy and Target, which is let to launch to the public, has already seen user data leaked to unauthorized third-parties.

CurrentC has begun sending emails to users warning them of the data breach stating that “unauthorized third parties obtained the e-mail addresses of some of you.”

A PR representative for CurrentC confirmed the information in the mail to Business Insider:

Within the last 36 hours, we learned that unauthorized third parties obtained the e-mail addresses of some of our CurrentC pilot program participants and individuals who had expressed interest in the app. Many of these email addresses are dummy accounts used for testing purposes only. The CurrentC app itself was not affected.

We have notified our merchant partners about this incident and directly communicated with each of the individuals whose email addresses were involved. We take the security of our users’ information extremely seriously. MCX is continuing to investigate this situation and will provide updates as necessary.

Not a great start for the fledgling mobile payment system. Not only has it been criticised for its clunky implementation of QR codes, its sketchy data gathering practices, and the fact that retailers are prohibited from offering Apple Pay (and Google Wallet or SoftCard) alongside CurrentC at the point of sale, it has now seen its first data breach.

By contrast, Apple Pay’s launch has seen positive customer reviews with its easy set up and usage, added user privacy and secure Touch ID authentication and tokenization for purchases.

Source: Business Insider

Recent Posts