PIN-sized security hole puts the kibosh on pre-paid Google Wallet cards for now

Recently, Google Wallet has had some problems with PIN security. At first, there was a breach available that could lead to your PIN getting stolen from a rooted device along with user IDs and all the information needed to break into your Google Wallet account. Now, that possibility has spread to non-rooted units as well. If your phone is stolen and you are not using the lock screen, your PIN number could be "reassigned" and someone with criminal intent could have access to the pre-paid balance attached to your phone. Because of this, Google has stopped the provisioning of pre-paid cards until it can come up with a permanent fix.

Still, Google says that Google Wallet has multiple levels of protection and that on most handsets, rooting your phone automatically wipes Google Wallet data off the device. Of course, that doesn't help fix the problem occuring on non-rooted models. The company says that mobile payments are going to be more common in the future and that it is learning more about security as Google Wallet grows in availability and usage. "You can be confident that the digital wallet you carry provides defenses that plastic and leather simply don’t," posted Google Wallet and Payments Vice President, Osama Bedier.

source: Google

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