Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Anywhere Commerce Granted New Patent for Conducting Secure Transactions


PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- AnywhereCommerce, a leading eCommerce and mCommerce engineering and solutions provider, announced the issuance of US Patent No. 8,055,545, Apparatus and method for conducting secure financial transactions.
Specifically, the patented technology uses a "trusted platform module" which stores sensitive consumer payment information securely. A virtual appliance module exists to create a protected environment wherein two computers can share a secure connection to deliver secure information stored in the TPM (TPM is one of the backbones of PC/mobile data security). Financial information is passed between parties using the most secure integrated chip technology along with encryption standards to protect all data transmission. For example, a bank can transmit and embed a consumers payment credentials to a mobile handset and enable a variety of transactions including; NFC, credit and debit.
"The technology covered by this patent will help revolutionize mobile commerce" said Mitchell Cobrin, AnywhereCommerce CEO. "One of the major concerns to widespread adoption of mobile commerce has been the lack of a simple but secure methodology for transmitting sensitive data. The AnywhereCommerce technology resolves this issue by providing a highly innovative (and now patented) dual authentication methodology that can be easily implemented."
"This patent bolsters our patent portfolio and continues to establish AnywhereCommerce's important role in the hyper-growing mobile payments ecosystem". Cobrin added "In today's technology environment, patent portfolios are recognized as necessary assets and we believe our growing patent portfolio is vital to providing secure payment solutions to financial institutions, merchants and consumers. In addition to our intellectual property, we continue to develop state-of-the-art certified mobile solutions that will support tailored security for data stored on TPM chips for respective application needs."
About AnywhereCommerceAnywhereCommerce is a global eCommerce and mCommerce payments technology engineering and solutions provider with patented and proprietary suites of hardware and software services for secure online and mobile card present credit card, PIN debit Chip and PIN- EMV and NFC transactions. The universal "aCommerce" platform is ideal for eCommerce, mCommerce, P2P, retail line busting as well as traditional field services such as repairman, delivery or taxi services. PCI certified devices and bank grade secure end-to-end ecosystem provides greater security, reliability, convenience and return on investment for consumers, merchants, networks, issuers and acquirers.

NFC Forum Members to Demonstrate Innovative Solutions in Frankfurt, Feb. 8


WAKEFIELD, Mass.--()--The NFC Forum, a non-profit industry association that advances the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, will host a Solutions Showcase at a reception in Frankfurt, Germany on February 8, where six member companies will demonstrate their NFC-enabled products and services.
“We are looking forward to the NFC Forum's inaugural Solutions Showcase as an energizing complement to our Members Meeting in Frankfurt”
Attendance at the reception is free of charge, but advance registration is required. The event will take place from 6 to 8 PM in the Lemons & Limes Bar at the Sheraton Frankfurt Airport Hotel & Conference Center, and refreshments will be served.
"We are looking forward to the NFC Forum's inaugural Solutions Showcase as an energizing complement to our Members Meeting in Frankfurt," said Koichi Tagawa, NFC Forum Chairman. "We encourage everyone who's interested in innovation to join us at the reception and find out firsthand what's behind the current excitement about NFC technology, and to enjoy refreshments with us in a relaxed and informal setting."
The Frankfurt demonstrations will showcase a range of NFC use cases:
  • AT4 wireless, an NFC Forum testing partner, will demonstrate its RIDER NFC Test tool for NFC Forum Digital Protocol and Analogue RF specifications; the product incorporates both test suites. The company is interested in meeting NFC ecosystem stakeholders, including device manufacturers, telecommunications operators, and test laboratories, at the Frankfurt event.
  • HOTech demonstrations will include NFC FieldService, a data collection and processing solution supporting field service activities; NFC Patrol, for patrol guard and security services management; NFCampus, a management solution applicable to academic and similar environments; and NFC Art Pro, which supports cultural heritage activities and artifacts management.
  • ITN International, Inc. will demonstrate the functionality and the business case for deploying and using NFC at events, via its Touch 'N Go Event Solutions. The company's demonstration will also show how cities, convention centers, transportation systems, hotels, restaurants, retailers and event producers can benefit from deploying citywide NFC credentials.
  • NEXPERTS will showcase its NFC-enabled mobile wallets for payment instruments such as PayPass and payWave cards as well as membership cards, coupons, tickets, and access credentials. The Next-Generation Wallet combines an open-loop payment system with loyalty features in a single tap.
  • Sony Corporation will show attendees a set of healthcare devices from different manufacturers that make use of its NFC Dynamic Tag chip to provide NFC support. Demonstrated devices will include step counters, blood pressure monitors, and weighing scales. The data measured by those devices can then be retrieved by a mobile phone via NFC. Sony will also present an Arduino-based NFC Dynamic Tag evaluation board and an Android library that simplifies the development of applications reading data from those NFC-enabled healthcare devices.
  • TUOMI IT SA will demonstrate its NFC-based interactive presentation, information, and verification system for other firms' products, its NFC-based object and service management support system for quality control and external services, and its mobile data collection with NFC and GPS. The company will also show its NFC Smart Posters for children, such as posters with jungle animals, pictures from different countries, or musical instruments.
In addition, WIMA, the leading global conference and exhibition exclusively dedicated to NFC applications, products and services, held in Monaco and the U.S., will be on hand to present information about its upcoming Monaco event (11-13 April, 2012) and the NFC Forum and WIMA Tap Into Innovation: NFC Global Competition 2012.
About the NFC Forum
The NFC Forum (http://www.nfc-forum.org) was launched as a non-profit industry association in 2004 by leading mobile communications, semiconductor, and consumer electronics companies. The Forum’s mission is to advance the use of Near Field Communication technology by developing specifications, ensuring interoperability among devices and services, and educating the market about NFC technology. The Forum’s 160+ global member companies currently are developing specifications for a modular NFC device architecture, and protocols for interoperable data exchange and device-independent service delivery, device discovery, and device capability.
The NFC Forum’s Sponsor members, which hold seats on the Board of Directors, include leading players in key industries around the world. The Sponsor members are: Barclaycard, Broadcom Corporation, INSIDE Secure, Intel, MasterCard Worldwide, Microsoft Corp., NEC, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Inc., NXP Semiconductors, Renesas Electronics Corporation, Samsung, Sony Corporation, STMicroelectronics, and Visa Inc.

Canada's Payfirma Updates Its Mobile Payment App in a Big Way


The mobile payment app now has a sleeker design, real-time sales summary, location tagging, and supports multiple languages

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--()--Payfirma, the leader of mobile payments for businesses in Canada, announces the availability of the next version of its mobile payment app. The updated app brings a host of new features that make accepting credit cards on iPhones and iPads faster and easier than ever before. The app also boasts a sleeker design that doubles the speed to make transactions.
Created in collaboration with merchants, the focus of this release is on user efficiency, location awareness, and real-time information. Businesses can now access real-time transaction reporting with daily, weekly, and month-to-date sales keeping merchants on top of their business. Each transaction is tagged with the location of the sale, so merchants and their customers can see their transactions on a map, right on their mobile device. This gives small businesses a new set of business intelligence to improve their sales and also increase security.
Payfirma also updated the app to support multiple languages, starting with French. If the operating language is set to French on an iPhone or iPad, Payfirma's app will be automatically rendered in French. This makes the app easier for the French Canadian market and also prepares the app for international expansion.
Research and development has already started for the next version to support the emerging NFC standards and the EMV payments standard, which is popular in Canada and European markets.
About Payfirma
We help businesses accept credit and debit cards in their storesonline and on their mobile devices. Our team designs and develops solutions that bring payments to a new personal and customizable level. We offer a full range of traditional point-of-sale solutions,eCommerce capabilities such as hosted checkout and recurring billing, and at the forefront, our mobile payment suite. Payfirma is a simple solution with top-notch service. To learn more about Payfirma, please visit http://www.payfirma.com, follow us on Twitter@Payfirma, or call us at 800-747-6883.

BillingViews Finds Five Flaws in NFC Mobile Payments Argument, Points to Bigger Opportunity in Machine-to-Machine

Boundaries of Security Report
Image via Wikipedia
NFC’s close association with mobile payments is “misguided”; communications industry needs to see the “bigger picture” in M2M

Here are our five problems – and one solution:


BillingViews (http://www.BillingViews.com), after examining the scale of investment in NFC, believes there must be a bigger goal than enabling mobile payments. It has identified five major problems that must be overcome in order for NFC to be a catalyst for mobile paymentadoption. The five problems relate to security, presence of terminals, handset availability, messaging and hygiene. BillingViews has also uncovered a greater opportunity for NFC, however, in the explosive growth of machine-to-machine communications.

“Connecting machines will be the next big transformation in how we live,” says Alex Leslie, Publisher of BillingViews. “The machine-to-machine opportunity is as big as the telecoms revolution that occupied the last century,” Leslie says.

Leslie adds that he finds the overwhelming association of NFC as a mobile payments enabler to be “misguided” because of its potential for success in enabling machine to machine communications. “The communications industry needs to see the bigger picture and associate NFC with M2M to understand the true scale of this opportunity. Almost every other industry is inventing and articulating solutions based on M2M technology and many of them will be enhanced by NFC capabilities. Add to those vertical opportunities the huge opportunities for NFC in proximity marketing and opt-in mobile advertising and it is more likely to be the catalyst for truly universal personalized communications and service provision than a payments tool.”

BillingViews has published its findings and perspectives online at http://www.billingviews.com in a new slideshow entitled Five Problems for Near Field Communications…and One Solution.

About BillingViews
BillingViews is the global home for billing, payment, and customer experience information in the communications and media industries. Its goal is to facilitate dialogue between executive level business and IT decision makers and the greater communications and media IT marketplace through focused, data-driven research and publications. BillingViews content is available free at : http://www.billingviews.com.

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