TSYS announced on Tuesday its role to support secure transactions and facilitate enablement for issuers, merchants and app developers in processing transactions from Apple Pay. TSYS will offer a path for merchant acceptance and certification of third-party devices as well as software solutions used for payments by providing merchants with products and developers with SDK/APIs. Through TSYS Enterprise Tokenization, the company’s new plug-and-play tokenization solution announced in August, issuers as well as retailers can take full advantage of Apple Pay. Payment card information will be more secure for purchases made online in apps and via NFC enabled POS terminals, supporting Apple Pay.
TSYS’ solutions support Apple Pay, the multiple parties in the payments ecosystem and the consumers they serve. Bank card issuers, merchant acquirers, app developers, retailers and consumers will all benefit from TSYS’ solutions that support secure payments and commerce.
In 2014, commerce initiated with mobile phones and tablets is expected to total $114 billion in the U.S. alone, according to Juniper Research.
“TSYS’ support of Apple Pay is a landmark opportunity for us and demonstrates our people-centered approach to payments for all parties in the payments ecosystem,” said M. Troy Woods, president and chief executive officer, TSYS, in a statement. “Our number one priority is security for the banks and retailers we serve, so their customers can conduct their lives with confidence and convenience. Apple Pay will change the face of the mobile payments industry and our role in the digital marketplace.”
More info about TSYS here.
Source: TSYS
This is all well and good.
What hasn’t been addressed so far is security for the watch. There seems to be no passcode. There is no fingerprint sensor. How will it authorize payments without recognizing the user?
There are sensors at the bottom. Will they recognize your wrist? That would seem to be the only way. Otherwise muggers will stop asking for your wallet and just ask for your watch.
I am “watching” this space very carefully….
I wished I had at least asked this question during the demos, but I don’t think it would’ve been answered. There were a lot of unanswered questions from people.
That said, I could imagine how this could be secure. Suppose the watch has a lock screen that can be unlocked from the watch or the iPhone. As long as it stays on your wrist, it remains unlocked. Once it’s removed, it locks again.
So when making a payment, it’s already been unlocked by you, and all you need to do is authorize the payment.
This is just a guess though.
I wondered the same thing – I was wondering if maybe the force reactive screen of the AppleWATCH may be sensitive enough to recognize a finger print.
Yes interesting. The future will be bio metric information from the wearer that confirms who it is but not yet sure if that is the case upon launch. Integrated sensor in the screen? The pressure sensor could help there but no indication of that or indeed if its even feasible if it is then why not do the same on the phones. Otherwise using the phones abilities in some way as the above suggests is the most likely solution. I Like the unlocking concept tied to proximity to the wrist a simpler solution in use of the biometric information but very effective.
I was wondering the something. I was also wondering if maybe the combination of apple watch and iPhone will somehow act as a for of authorization. Im sure there is another step in there somewhere.
According to Apple the Watch needs to be paired with a phone to use it with Apple Pay. So if I had to guess I’d say the watch probably needs to be authorised by the phone when you put it on (either with finger print or code since it works with iPhone 5) to allow payments. If its taken off it likely needs to be reauthorised making it unusable if you are relieved of both or it is too far away from your phone.
Very negative attitude… I am sure you recall they said it is tethered to your iPhone so APay will only work if it is within your iPhone which means one would have had to select the credit card to use, and I am sure certain level of authorization.
The concept will work beyond APay as the NFC will also be helpful with accessing hotel rooms, elevator access in most newer apt buildings and corporations, smart locks by many vendors will rush to support it.
The reason for the Jan release is to ensure more developers have time to support it and for them to resolve technical issues as they and their partners would be able to wear the devices in public for full testing.
I agree that security will be critical among many other factors.
The info is posted on Apple’s site, at least as I see it. The watch only works for payments when paired with an iPhone 5 or later. So the watch won’t work for payments unless it is within 30ish feet of your phone. That seems to be reasonable security. If both get swiped, disabling the phone through find my iphone would also prevent the watch from pairing with it.
Also, apparently it can tell when it is removed…
Clever trick will safeguard Apple Watch from thieves
http://www.cultofmac.com/295024/apple-watch-anti-theft/
The real question is this…where do they make money in apple pay and who loses from the money they do make? As an owner of a small business it has become appaulling how much the major credit cards want in terns of transaction fees…dies anyone think that they will take less just so apple can skim some coin too? No way… Fees will go up and so will consumer prices to account for the increase…just my humble opinion…
As a business person myself I know how you feel. I think the idea is Apple will get a cut based on the security of the token system they are using. It is much more secure than even using a card directly so there is less risk (therefore less cost involved) for the banks and processors. Credit card fraud is one of the biggest drivers of transaction fee increases.
You have no understanding of the cost of forged credit cards. It has to be enormous. I’ve been running a corporate credit card program with 600 cards since 2010. Over that time more than 80% of those cards have been compromised causing the cards to be cancelled and reissued. Each of those cards had fraudulent transactions, cause that’s the only way you find out your card has been compromised. In reality, there’s a whole boat load of money to be saved here if in fact we can make these transactions secure.
Every business has to make a margin and clearly as a business owner you understand your choices so if you think this is not overall beneficial to your business then do not subscribe to it.
Having said that, I for one will work very hard to only pay with my Apple Pay and walk away to another vendor when I have a choice. I am just tired of having to replace my credit cards on a regular basis because the card got copied (often in restaurants) and from major companies such as Target and HD and many others who have kept quite.