Google Wallet Hacked – AGAIN!!!

It is better to be wary than be caught unaware. It has become easy to conduct trade like making sales and purchases over the internet. Banking is another facility enabled over the internet thus making transfer of funds easier. The bad thing that comes in between the advantages made available by internet use is the vulnerability to hackers if not properly secured. The hackers pose security threats to account holders as they work their ways round the clock seeking to find a loop hole that will help them attack from.

Google wallet is a mobile application that allows you to conduct trade with ease. It saves you the trouble to carry money around as it stores information about your credit card and any offers that you have. When you make purchases at a store that accepts payment through this mode all you have to do is share information at the point of sale section and the transactions are done. This has made many to prefer the use of this mode as it makes work easier for them when it comes to purchases. Many no longer have the need to carry cash or cards in a wallet as the mobile application becomes their new wallet. This though became a case when hackers managed to get a loophole that they could use to hit the secure mode of operation by the program.

A discovery made shows that Google wallet can be hacked through an unauthorized individuals accessing a Google wallet users account in a simple manner. This was possible through two processes thus making the Google account owners vulnerable to hackers.

• The mode used for saving the Personal PIN was not a recommended mode that should be on the NFP chip. The PINs were saved on rooted stores. This meat than if the phone fell into one who has adequate knowledge on technology support then this one would run the password combinations available until this individual falls on that which is used to protect your account and thus access all the funds in the account. This risk needed swift action from the part of the security companies dealing with technology as a lot was at stake. It was a threat to all the rooted phones.

• Another error was in the loophole that fell on the part of the application settings thus affecting the phones that are not rooted too. In this instance, if you resold your phone, gave it away, or if it was stolen, then you face a high risk of loosing all your funds. This is because if one decided to reset the application settings, then the old data would be cleared thus allowing the new user to slot in the new password even without prompting them to enter the old PIN that one used. This means that the new user is able to associate the Google account to the prepaid card that was used with ease thus accessing the funds that are available.

Guest article by Ponty Mehta, based out Ranchi. You can contact him at ponty34@gmail.com