Introduction
In recent years, our phone has become our personal assistant, entertainment platform, life
documenting device, an extension to our desktop, and a common, convenient, and fast payment
method. In the last decade, more and more digital payment applications have emerged, competing
with credit card companies and it seems like it is only a matter of time before cash disappears from
our world.
With new technologies, appear new threats and for this report, we investigated the interest of threat
actors in digital wallets such as Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Apple Pay to understand their intentions
as well as gain a better knowledge of digital wallets vulnerabilities
DEFINITION:
A digital wallet, AKA e-Wallet, is a software application that allows making electronic transactions with
another party bartering digital currency units for goods and services.
1
How Digital Wallets Work
Digital wallets use near-field communication (NFC) to pass credentials and allow contactless payment.
To use the digital wallet, you can either deposit money into the digital wallet, or you can link your
credit card or bank account to it.
The concept of digital wallets has been around nearly since the first days of online commerce, but the
trend of in-store payments only emerged with Apple Pay, in September 2014.
Google has its own digital payment application ‘Google Pay’, and in 2016 it launched the mobile
Hands-Free application, which allows payment without a card or a phone, but requires that the
customer’s initials and verified photo are uploaded on to the application in advance. Samsung’s
payment app, Samsung Pay, was first released in August 2015.
In 2020, there have been more than 779 billion digital transactions worldwide.
2
According to a
research done by PYMNTS
3
, the share of consumers with Apple Pay compatible iPhones has continued
to climb over the years and reached 36% in 2020.
1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_wallet
2
https://www.capitalontap.com/en/blog/posts/the-rise-of-digital-wallets/
3
https://securecdn.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Mobile-Wallet-Adoption-2020-April.pdf