Mobile Payment Security

India is a country that is still sceptical to online transactions. We have developed Cash on Delivery that is unique to Indian E-Commerce business. This unique system is a testimony of the fact that the Indian E-commerce system is still developing and the consumers have to establish a trust on the numerous portals that offer zillion products online. When the state of trust on E-Commerce is in such a questionable condition, little can be expected for M-Commerce. M-Commerce is doing transactions over the mobile phone. With the rapid rise in the number of mobile subscribers in India, markets are abuzz about the potential of M-Commerce.

To make M-Commerce a successful venture in India, a lot of effort will need to go into making the mobile payment system more robust. A robust mobile payment mechanism will establish the trust and dependence on the mobile commerce platform and encourage people to move towards M-Commerce.

Some reasons why mobile commerce over wireless networks is inherently insecure are:

• Reliability and Integrity: reliability is the quality of being dependable. A mobile network should be consistently dependable and reliable. Similarly integrity is the quality of being complete and whole. Message transferred from one location should reach the other location in whole and should reach every time. The condition of mobile networks in India is still not very dependable. In such a situation, mobile commerce will take some time to evolve.

• Confidentiality/Privacy: The message that is sent from one location should reach the other location and only the rightful receiver should be able to read it/listen to it. No third party should have access to the personal information sent over mobile networks. This becomes imperative when critical transactions are done over the mobile channel. Customer specific information like banking details, passwords etc. are sensitive information and no third party should be able to access those at any cost.

• Identification and Authentication: An evolved mobile commerce portal should be able to correctly identify and authenticate customers during a transaction. Identification is establishing the identity of a customer. On the other hand authentication is the verification of the identity supplied by the customer. When a customer supplies sensitive information like a credit card number, there should be a way by which it can be established that only the rightful owner of the credit card is supplying the number and it is not a fraud.