MasterCard in Licensing Agreement with Cryptography Research

Source: 05.18.2009 - American Banker Article

MasterCard in Licensing Pact  | Cardline Global | Monday, May 18, 2009

MasterCard Inc. has agreed to require suppliers of contactless and smart cards that use the EMV Integrated Circuit Card Specification to license antifraud technology from Cryptography Research Inc. of San Francisco.  The agreement, which Cryptography Research announced last week, followed an out-of-court settlement it reached last fall with Visa Inc. in a suit that claimed the vendor's patented technology had been used in hundreds of millions of cards issued under the Visa brand dating back to 2001.

Visa paid an undisclosed sum and agreed to license Cryptography Research's technology, which is designed to protect cards against a hacking technique called differential power analysis. (Whitepapers)

Cryptography Research had accused MasterCard of anticompetitive behavior but did not sue the Purchase, N.Y., company.

"I can't really talk about how much money MasterCard is paying us," Kit Rodgers, Cryptography Research's vice president for business development and licensing, said in an interview. "I can say products approved prior to the April 16 agreement will remain approved for use with MasterCard."

Differential power analysis lets hackers extract encryption keys from smart cards. Cryptography Research's chief executive, Paul Kocher, and two colleagues say they invented the attack in 1998 and developed countermeasures.

Many smart card and chip vendors say they developed their own countermeasures, but Rodgers said the settlement with Visa and the agreement with MasterCard will require all of them to pay Cryptography Research licensing fees if they want to do business in the bank card market.

Here's more on DPA (and licensing fees) from Cryptography Research

DPA COUNTERMEASURES

a differential power analysis overview

Differential Power Analysis (DPA) is a class of attacks discovered by
researchers at Cryptography Research. DPA is a powerful tool that allows
cryptanalysts to extract secret keys and compromise the security of smart
cards and other cryptographic devices by analyzing their power consumption.
Simple Power Analysis (SPA) is a simpler form of the attack that does
not require statistical analysis.

Unlike physical attacks, SPA and DPA attacks are non-invasive,
easily-automated, and can be mounted without knowing the design of the
target device. Cryptography Research has developed solutions for
securing devices against these attacks.

Cryptography Research and DPA

Cryptography Research is committed to helping companies understand and address issues related to cryptography and security.
The following links provide more information about our technologies and services.

Patent Licensing

The Cryptography Research patent portfolio includes numerous fundamental patents relating to DPA and
countermeasures. A license to these patents is required to make, use, or sell DPA-resistant devices.
To encourage education and research, free licenses are available for qualifying non-commercial use.

cryptography research, mastercard, licensing fees

Hop-On to Release iPhone Application for Internet Gambling

PR-USA.net - Hop-on to Release an iPhone App for Internet Gambling After Legislation Passed

Hop-on, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: HPNN) announced today that they will release an iPhone Application upon approval of the Internet gambling legislation. Last Wednesday Democratic Rep. Barney Frank presented a bill to Congress in hopes of lifting the current ban on Internet gambling.

According to Nielsen Mobile, iPhone boasts approximately 2.3 million US mobile subscribers. Of these users, 20% use their iPhone to play online games. The iPhone App Store continues to grow with a total of 38,075 Active Apps available for download with over 7,000 of those Apps attributed to Games, none of which are a gambling app for money.

Peter Michaels, President and CEO of Hop-on, states, "We believe even more iPhone users will use our application for gaming in real time. As we are in continued support of Rep. Barney Frank's proposed legislation to legalize Internet gambling, Hop-on is moving to release an App immediately after the passing of the bill."

Michaels also stated, "Utilizing the iPhone user interface, players will be able to play interactive gambling games with multiple players in real time. iPhone has the Multi-Touch interface, the accelerometer, GPS, real-time 3D graphics, and 3D positional audio perfect platform for Interactive Streaming Casinos."

About Hop-on:

Hop-on (PINKSHEETS: HPNN) develops and markets wireless phones and accessories for emerging markets and other domestic carriers and is best known for developing the world's first disposable cell phone. Currently, Hop-on is expanding into value-added services, like mobile gambling and SMS wagering. Hop-on's exclusive software will allow users to stream live interactive feed from legal jurisdictions to play poker, blackjack, roulette and baccarat on personal cell phones.

For more information, visit http://www.Hop-on.com or http://www.webcasinos.com

Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933, and are subject to Rule 3B-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and other results and further events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Future events and actual results could differ materially from those set forth in, contemplated by, or underlying the forward-looking statements.

Hop-on, Online Gambling, Internet Gambling, iPhone

Cards Middle East 2009 Payments Conference/Exhibition Kicks Off

Largest Cards and Payments Conference & Exhibition: Cards Middle East 2009 Kicks Off

UAE. Cards Middle East 2009 marks ten years in this week. Firmly established as the Middle East's dedicated cards and payments conference and exhibition, the event continues to be the must-attend event for retail banking professionals, government, transport and retail from the MENA region.

Leaders in banking such as Emirates NBD, Dubai Islamic Bank, Gulf Bank, Jordan Commercial Bank, Mashreqbank, Qatar National Bank, Standard Chartered, HSBC Middle East and many more will headline the 2009 conference.

The conference and exhibition opens on Monday 18 May and will welcome HSBC, who will share their experience in tackling card fraud, Deutsche Bank reveal the global trends in growing a cards business, and Eoncap Islamic Bank discuss the opportunities and strength of Islamic finance and cards in the current economic climate, whilst Bank Muamalat Indonesia share the success story of its prepaid debit card programme.

This is the meeting of choice for cards and payments professionals to stay up to date with the latest trends in payment methods. This year, topics on mobile payments, prepaid cards, NFC and contactless cards were all be tackled.

The 2009 exhibition will see more than 60 exhibitors from across the globe gathered at the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel, including companies from the UK, UAE, Lebanon, India, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, Turkey, France, China, Korea, US, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt, Belgium, Russia, Bahrain, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Taiwan Belgium and Kuwait with new product launches, new features and new ideas.

Held against a backdrop of the most difficult economic environment the 2009 exhibition has seen a 30% increase in visitor numbers, proving its value to the cards and payments industry.

The new and free on-floor seminar theatre is set to welcome hundreds of visitors to its 26 sessions, ensuring the event continues to be the ideal platform to learn about the new issues.

Cards Middle East 2009

BillMyParents Puts Kids in Charge

BillMyParents Launches Unique Online Payment System for Teens and Parents

BillMyParents Launches Unique Online Payment System for Teens and Parents
PRESS RELEASE:  2009-05-18 06:11:02 -

Socialwise, Inc. (OTCBB:SCLW) today launched BillMyParents : cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww .. , an innovative online youth payment system that gives teens the freedom to shop online and parents the control over these purchases -- all in a simple, automated system that keeps credit card numbers and other personal information safe and secure.

Out of the more than $132 billion spent annually by youth, $40 billion is spent offline on products researched online. Lack of a credit card was cited by 40% of teens as the reason why they don’t buy online*. “The online teen spending market is hugely underserved and BillMyParents is uniquely poised to tap into the desire for teens to be able to shop online, while still letting parents maintain control in a safe and secure environment,” said James Collas, CEO of Socialwise.

The BillMyParents payment system platform addresses this untapped teen spending market with a multifaceted approach to online payment processing for teens and tweens, and gives them an easy way to purchase products online without a credit card. Using the BillMyParents button at the point of sale, teens can initiate a purchase in seconds. Parents complete the purchase at their convenience through a simple, easy to use, and automated system enabled by instant email and text notifications.

At launch, the BillMyParents payment system platform includes the following elements.

- BillMyParents Shopping e-commerce site : cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww .. : To give teens immediate access to more than a million products, BillMyParents has launched a shopping site powered by Amazon.com through their associate program. The BillMyParents Shopping site (BMPshopping.com) gives teens and tweens access to the entire inventory available online on Amazon.com today, without needing a credit card to make purchases. Teens will be able to use the BillMyParents system to seamlessly make their selections and send parents their shopping requests to either approve or deny.

- Partnerships with leading online social Web sites: To date, BillMyParents has forged unique partnerships with leading online gaming sites and social network applications targeted at teens and tweens, including Artix Entertainment, Habbo, Outspark and RockYou!, among others, addressing a total potential market of up to 100 million users across these sites alone. Scheduled to be rolled out into these, and other, partner sites in the coming weeks and months, BillMyParents is designed to easily integrate into partner sites, prior to the shopping cart or checkout page, in only a few days with minimal effort. This upfront placement immediately informs teens and tweens, who may not otherwise have a way to pay, that a credit card is not required to initiate the transaction, incentivizing them to request the purchase then and there. With an estimated $1.5 billion of virtual goods purchased each year globally**, BillMyParents provides a service that allows social networking and gaming sites to begin increasing revenues from virtual goods immediately.

- Social network shopping application: In yet another way to reach the teen marketplace, BillMyParents has developed account management applications for leading social networks, such as MySpace and Facebook, that will let teens and tweens track their purchase requests made with BillMyParents, enable their friends to see their recent purchases, and rate products all from a dashboard on their social network profiles. Announced today, the social network application will be publicly available in the coming weeks.

BillMyParents is also currently focused on signing up large third party online retailers.
“Our partnership with Socialwise and BillMyParents adds a valuable and unique payment feature to our online role playing games,” said Daniel Vasile, business development manager of Artix Entertainment, LLC. “Many of our 80 million registered users worldwide are under 18, and by offering our young gamers and their parents an innovative, safe and easy way to make purchases and enhance game play, Artix is continuing to offer leading-edge features that enhance the gaming experience.”

BillMyParents is led by an experienced management team and advisory board, including CEO James Collas, who previously was the chief technology officer of Gateway and helped take it public. Advisory board members include technology industry veterans Maynard Webb, who brings 30 years of experience developing and leading high-growth companies including serving in the role of chief operating officer at eBay, Inc., and Joe Abrams, co-founder of Intermix, the parent company of MySpace which was sold to News Corp. in 2005.

How it Works
The BillMyParents system is ingeniously simple. Teens and tweens can shop online using BillMyParents, either via BillMyParents enabled social networks, virtual worlds or online gaming sites. Once they have made their selections, BillMyParents sends a notification to the parent or other adult guardian, by email or mobile text, through an automated, instantaneous system. Parents then review the teens’ selections and can approve or deny each request individually, or as a group. For the approved selections, the parent then enters their credit card information to complete the transaction. The whole process can be completed within minutes without the teen, or the merchant, ever gaining access to sensitive credit card details or other personal information.

The simplicity and speed of BillMyParents lets the teen resume shopping or play without ever having to leave the e-commerce site.

About BillMyParents
BillMyParents is the innovative new youth payment system that lets teens and tweens shop online without a credit card, while giving parents the ability to easily track and control their teen’s spending. With a simple email request and approval system, BillMyParents provides the independence young people crave and the control over spending that parents want - while ensuring that credit card numbers and personal information are kept safe and secure. BillMyParents is currently available as a payment system in select online retail environments, in addition to social network, virtual world and online gaming Web sites.
BillMyParents is a division of Socialwise (OTCBB:SCLW). For more information: www.billmyparents.com : cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww .. .

About Socialwise, Inc.
Socialwise™, Inc. (OTCBB:SCLW) combines the explosive growth of targeted online commerce, application development, and group interaction by developing platforms that integrate traditional e-commerce products and services into the latest social network applications such as Group Gift Card™ and BillMyParents™. Socialwise™ also enables application developers access to its platforms and tools needed to build and integrate e-commerce transactions into their applications. Socialwise was previously traded under the name ideaEDGE. The Company is headquartered in San Diego, CA. For more information: www.socialwise.com : cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww .. .

*Harris Interactive YouthPulse Survey. 2007
**New York Times, December 7, 2008

BillMyParents,

ATM Thieves

Banking/Finance - ATM / POS
Source: huffingtonpost
Complete item: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roseanne-colletti/identity-lost-and-found_b_204399.html

Description:
I
recently covered a story that started me thinking a little more seriously about
identity theft. Apparently some very daring and technically astute thieves
rigged some ATM machines at two bank locations and swiped half-a-million dollars
from account holders.

Now mind you, they had to go into the enclosed ATM
lobby to do this. Guess those security cameras are only good after the fact. At
any rate, the clever criminals placed a skimming device right above the slot for
the bankcard. That way whenever someone swiped a card, the skimmer recorded and
stored the information on the magnetic strip. The wrongdoers also made a movie
of the keypad as the pin numbers were punched in. They had positioned a tiny
camera in the lighted sign directly overhead. Later they synced up the skimmer
with the camera video and went to town taking from one account after
another.

None of this activity was discovered until one of the bank's
customers reported a discrepancy on his bank statement. And this leads to my
wake-up call. How many of us really check our bank statements that carefully?
Perhaps its because we don't really want to see all those extra fees we may be
paying and could avoid if we only changed banks or accounts. Perhaps its because
we really don't want to know how many times we went to the ATM to get cash we
can't even remember spending.

However, denial and fear of unpleasant
knowledge aside, checking your bank statement each and every month, online or in
the mail, is one way to combat identity theft. And it's important to keep you
from losing money and maybe fighting with your bank to get it back.

ATM Skimmer, Skimming, Credit Card Skimming, ATM Thieves

First Data: $2.1Billion Q1 Revenue

First Data Reports First Quarter Revenue of $2.1 Billion
PIN Payments News on May 18, 2009 at 5:18 AM

• Revenue growth of 1% on a constant currency basis
• Signed 117,000 domestic merchant locations
• Renewed 130 contracts with financial institutions
• International transactions up 10%, total card accounts on file up 5%

DENVER, May 15, 2009 (PIN Payments News Blog) -- First Data Corp reportedits financial results for the quarter ending March 31, 2009.Consolidated revenues were $2.1 billion, down 2% or up 1% on a constantcurrency basis. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciationand amortization (EBITDA) were $491 million, down 15% or down 11% on aconstant currency basis. In addition to the adverse impact of thestrong U.S. dollar, adjusted EBITDA comparisons were unfavorablyaffected by lower royalties following a large increase in the firstquarter of last year. Excluding currency effects and the change inroyalty revenue, adjusted EBITDA was down 6%. The net loss attributableto First Data was $231 million.

"Our revenue base held steady in the quarter as we added newmerchant and bank customers," said Michael Capellas, chairman and CEOof First Data. "We will continue to invest in new product developmentto fuel long-term growth while driving cost efficiencies to sustainprofitability."

Segment Results

Retail and Alliance Services: Retail and Alliance Services reported revenue of $1.2 billion, up7%. Retail and Alliance Services signed 117,000 merchant locations inthe quarter. In addition, 21 new independent sales organizations, 12new referral partners and two new revenue share agreements were addedto the distribution network. Excluding debit network fees, segmentrevenue was down 7% and was primarily affected by weakness in theoverall economy and continued transaction mix shifts. EBITDA was $242million, down 19%, and EBITDA margin excluding debit network fees was33.2%. Operating profit was $54 million, compared with $83 million inthe first quarter of 2008. Operating profit margin was 4.7%.


Financial Services: For the quarter, Financial Services revenue was $544 million, down3%. Revenue excluding reimbursables was down 1%. Financial Servicesrenewed 130 contracts in the quarter. EBITDA was $158 million, down 6%,and EBITDA margin excluding reimbursables was 42.5%. Operating profitwas $76 million, compared with $90 million in the first quarter of2008. Operating profit margin was 13.9%.

International: For the quarter, International generated revenue of $369 million,down 16%. Revenue on a constant currency basis, excluding acquisitionsand divestitures, was up 1%. Transactions and point-of-sale locationseach showed healthy growth at 10% and 9%, respectively. EBITDA was $73million, down 9%, and EBITDA margin was 19.9%. On a constant currencybasis, EBITDA was $91 million, up 13%, and EBITDA margin was 20.4%.Operating profit was $7 million, compared with $19 million in the firstquarter of 2008. Operating profit margin was 1.8%.

Other Matters: Segment Realignment: Effective Jan. 1, 2009, First Data adopted a revised segmentreporting structure. The company's segments include Retail and AllianceServices, Financial Services, International and Integrated PaymentSystems. For applicable prior year and quarterly periods, the companyhas provided financials realigned to these segments in connection withour first quarter 2009 Securities and Exchange Commission Form 10-Qfiling.
Non-GAAP Measures

In certain circumstances, results have been presented that arenon-GAAP measures and should be viewed in addition to, and not in lieuof, the company's reported results. Reconciliations to comparable GAAP(generally accepted accounting principles) measures are available inthe accompanying schedules and in the "Investor Relations" section ofthe company's web site at www.firstdata.com.


Investor and Analyst Conference Call

The company hosted a conference call and webcast on Friday, May15, at 8 a.m. EDT to review first quarter 2009 financial results.Michael Capellas, chairman and CEO of First Data, will lead the call.Also participating will be Phil Wall, chief financial officer, andSilvio Tavares, senior vice president, investor relations. A replay of the call will be available through May 20, 2009, at 888-20... (U.S.) or +1-719-... (outside the U.S.), replay pass code 9703413, and via webcast at http://ir.firstdatacorp.com/events.cfm.  Please note: All statements made by First Data officers on this callare the property of First Data and subject to copyright protection.Other than the replay, First Data has not authorized, and disclaimsresponsibility for any recording, replay or distribution of anytranscription of this call.

About First Data
First Data powers the global economy by making it easy, fast andsecure for people and businesses to buy goods and services usingvirtually any form of electronic payment. Whether the choice of paymentis a gift card, a credit or debit card or a check, First Data securelyprocesses the transaction and harnesses the power of the data todeliver intelligence and insight for millions of merchant locations andthousands of card issuers in 36 countries. For more information, visit www.firstdata.com. 

Full financial tables can be found here http://ir.firstdatacorp.com/releaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=384261

SOURCE: First Data Corporation
First Data
Investor and Analyst Relations:
Silvio Tavares, 303-967-8276
silvio.tavares@firstdata.com