July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Buying something on mobile devices is a feat of digital dexterity (see what I did there?). Payments company Braintree has publicly released Venmo Touch and made updates to its iOS software developer kit (SDK) to make mobile purchases as easy as Facebook Connect.

Braintree’s payment gateway helps businesses quickly and easily accept credit cards online. The technology takes care of processing transactions, securely storing customer data, accepting payments internationally, recurring billing, and so on, so merchants can focus on front-facing issues. It introduced Venmo Touch in limited beta earlier this year, which enables consumers to save credit card details on their iPhone so they can pay with one-tap across all Braintree powered apps.

“We’ve been testing Venmo Touch out over the past two months,” said Braintree CEO Bill Ready in an interview with VentureBeat. “Thirty percent of e-commerce sessions happen on mobile, but the conversion rates fall by 75 percent. People don’t want to do data entry on a touchscreen. What we have proven out through tons of before-and-after tests is if you implement a single checkout solution, it completely bridges that gap on a mobile device and people are just as likely to buy if as on the Web.”

Braintree was founded in 2007 and one of the earlier tech companies to enter the payments space. The Chicago-based company has since raised a total of $69 million from New Enterprise Associates, Accel Partners, RRE Ventures, and Greycroft Partners, and in August acquired peer-to-peer payments startup Venmo. Braintree is now active in 40 countries and accepts payments in over 130 currencies. It enables payments for 40 million consumers and works with over 4,000 merchants, including high-profile tech companies like Uber, AirBnB, Hotel Tonight, LivingSocial, Fab.com, TaskRabbit, Rovio, OpenTable, Poshmark, Zimride  and Github.

The system processes $8 billion annually, and $2 billion of this is on mobile. Ready said this represents a significant chunk of the mobile commerce market, and all these factors set Braintree up to become the go-to mobile payment platform despite competition from PayPal and startups like Stripe and Balanced.

“The consumer side and the merchant side have to come together for the next generation of e-commerce,” he said. “Payments will become a network effect play about who can make it easiest for merchants and consumers to connect with one another with context-driven experiences. To do that, you need to have thousands of merchants and millions of consumers. We are thinking that this platform, if we do this right, will be as important for next decade of commerce as PayPal was for the last decade.”

The idea is that travelers can book their AirBnB or Hotel Tonight accommodation using Venmo Touch and the information is saved so they can also call for an Uber cab or hire a TaskRabbit using just one button. Many companies, including Google, PayPal, Square, and Visa, have attempted to create digital wallets, but ComScore found consumers are reluctant to adopt this method of payment.

One of the barriers to entry is the availability of retailers. Ready said Braintree’s “unwallet” is different, because it does not target brick-and-mortar businesses, the client list is already significant, and since the merchants are the one to implement the technology, consumers might not even be aware that they are using it. They are simply presented with the choice- do you want to enter all your payments information again? Or press this simple button? The answer, for those of us not working on finger strength or zen-like patience, is one click.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/ Braintree

This sponsored post is produced by StackSocial.

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The startup from Boston has locked up $6 million in its second round of institutional financing to continue growing its network of customers, merchants, credit card associations, and financial services providers.

Plastiq sets up credit card payments in sectors that generally rely on checks and cash.  The service is primarily geared toward large costs, like tuition, cars, donations, taxes, and real estate. Merchants that want to offer their customers more flexible payment systems can use Plastiq to set up an installment schedule and enable payments from anywhere. They can also set up loyalty and rewards systems to drive marketing and sales.

Additionally, it tracks and reports on all of the data that goes through the portal. Using a dashboard, universities, car salesmen, real estate agents, or landlords can access their most recent transaction information as well as transaction history. The API is integrates with existing website and accounting systems to keep all records in one place.

Plastiq is comparable to PayPal’s merchant services — except that’s free. Consumers pay a small fee for each transaction. However, Plastiq said they seem to be willing to pay for the added convenience and control of using their credit cards “in situations when they previously could not.”

Founders Eliot Buchanan and Daniel Choi met at Harvard’s Innovation Lab where they first developed the idea. Atlas Venture and Flybridge Capital Partners led this round, with existing investors NextView Ventures and Greenoaks Capital participating. Plastiq has raised $8.35 million to date.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Munich-based Paymill has raised €10 million ($13.2 million) for its API that quickly and easily enables online credit card payments.

Similar to the San Francisco-based startup Stripe, Paymill offers a “quick start” solution for online stores and service providers to set up an online payment system. All they have to do is copy and paste a few lines of code and “poof!” E-commerce.

Paymill charges a 2.95 percent of the transaction amount, as well as 0.28€ ($0.37) for every successful transaction. The service is secure, and Paymill offers documentation and support for its customers. From the dashboard, businesses can track the amount of clients, transactions, turnover, and success rate over time.

The company launched in Munich in June of 2012 and quickly became active in 34 countries. According to a statement, “Paymill is the first provider to have brought the simple and user-friendly technical solution to Europe.” As the European technology community and e-commerce continue to heat up, so does the demand for simple payment integrations.

Paymill will use the funding to develop the technical platform and improve customers support efforts, as well as continue to enter new markets. German accelerator Rocket Internet, Holtzbrink Ventures, RI Digital, and Sunstone Capital contributed to this round, which comes to over $13 million.

PayPal today announced the launch of PayPal My Cash Card. It is the company’s first “fully branded cash loading token”which easily converts cash into secure online funds.

People purchase a My Cash Card, which are available as of today at more than 30,000 retail locations across the U.S. They then create an account on the companion PayPal site and load the funds into their PayPal account using the PIN number on the back of the card. From there, they can online shop to their hearts’ and wallet’s content.

This is a useful option for people who prefer or only have access to cash, but want to make purchases online. Those folks in cash-flow heavy professions (bartenders, strippers, and so on), people wary of large financial institutions, or those who simply do not have a credit/debit card can now join in the fun of online shopping.

PayPal joined with InComm for this initiative, a company that provides a suite of prepaid products. It is part of PayPal’s overarching mission to be the method that people pay for everything, online, offline, and the netherworld in-between. In August, PayPal announced a partnership with Discover that will bring its technology to the point-of-sale (POS) for millions of merchants. Once the integration is complete, consumers will be able to pay using their PayPal accounts in-store. Rather than pulling out a wallet, all they need to do is type in their mobile number and a PIN.

During a roundtable chat yesterday with Hill Ferguson, PayPal’s VP of global product, he said that all these consumer engagement initiatives are in an effort to create a one-stop-shop for retail payments.

“We have spent the past year and a half reinventing and reinvigorating the brand to give it a personality,” he said. “We have 117 million active users. We help offline users get online and online users get offline to make the shopping experience as secure and convenient as possible. Our vision is to be the global digital wallet.”

PayPal started out as an internet payment service way back in the 1990s and was acquired by eBay in 2002. Like any savvy company in the e-commerce/payments space, it has put a heavy emphasis on mobile transactions and has seen record mobile shopping numbers over the past few weeks. Whether physical wallets are to be relegated to the domain of pocket watches and monocles is still up in the air. PayPal, however, is hard at work to create options for all shoppers, regardless of their payment proclivities.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Google Wallet, which just recently made big changes to support Visa, American Express, and Discover cards, is now apparently making even bigger changes. As in, back to the future changes.

Remember how digital wallets were supposed to be all about losing those bulky physical wallets and resultant ass bulges, and just using a nice clean app on the same mobile computer you sometimes use to talk to your mom?

Not any more.

Source: Android Police

Google credit card?

According to a leaked report at AndroidPolice, Google Wallet has pivoted into an actual credit card. But not your daddy’s credit card.

This one morphs into a Visa card when you want to pay with Visa, a MasterCard when you want pay with MasterCard, and so on. Simply set the payment processor of your choice in the Google Wallet app, and the smart credit card shifts identities. Given the fact that the update last month that added Visa also moved Google Wallet users’ payment credentials to the cloud, it could be the case that payment selection is made at the server level.

The idea, apparently, is to leapfrog the lagging adoption curve at the point of sale and device level — still no NFC support from Cupertino — and go back to the tried and true, with a twist.

Apparently, PayPal-like person-to-person transfers and money balances are also going to be part of the new and improved Google Wallet.

I’ve asked Google for confirmation or comment, and so far, it’s a definite “no comment.”

If true, this is interesting and weird and possibly genius, although when I first heard it I thought it was the stupidest thing ever.

Saying I’ll put that on Google may just be the stepping stone we need to transition to the coming more virtual world. And it would give Google Wallet instant viability on iPhone in addition to its Android home turf.

photo credit: TruShu via photopin cc

Dynamics is hoping to turn the credit card and payment industries upside down with an innovative new kind of smart card and payment system. The ePlate system is a way for developers to get direct data on customer purchases and extra revenues from each transaction via “payment apps.” With ePlate, Dynamics hopes to change the way people pay for goods and services by motivating them to earn some very specific rewards from their favorite book authors or other goods providers. And, in a twist that could motivate a lot of partners to join the rewards program, the author or the goods providers get a cut of every transaction made with the credit card.

That completely changes the way the card operates and the benefit that the consumer receives from using it. Dynamics’ system includes the ePlate payment device, which is a battery-powered Visa credit card that allows a consumer to change the app that is running on the card. You can apply for a card today on Dynamics’ site, and you can change the reward you earn with every purchase.

Dynamics has gathered a bunch of partners to participate in what it calls an “ecosystem of experience providers.” Each delivers an individualized brand experience to the consumer via an app on the ePlate card. Before purchasing, a consumer selects multiple experience apps on their smartphone, tablet, or computer to port to their ePlate device. At the time of purchase, the consumer can use different buttons on the ePlate device to select different “experience apps.” Those apps give the consumer a reward whenever he uses the card.

Each experience provider gets 50 basis points, or half a percent of the value of every transaction. So for a $100 purchase, the provider gets 50 cents.

Dynamics founder and chief executive Jeff Mullen (pictured right) said in an interview with VentureBeat, “You can get your reward before you put your card into your wallet.”

More than 30 apps will be available at launch. The first-generation device has two buttons on it, so you can store two different applications on the card. You can use your PC or smartphone to select the experience apps that you want to have on the card.

The system is the brainchild of Mullen, who said his team worked on the technology for 2.5 years.

The ePlate cards have batteries that last three years, and they work with the existing 60 million mag-stripe credit card readers in the market today. The cards have 70 electronic components embedded within a plastic card.

“We form the card around the electronics,” said Mullen.

He said that integrating ePlate into the payment system “is so fast that consumer benefits for an ‘app’ will be delivered before consumers can even put their ePlate device back into their wallet.”

He added, “The result of the ePlate device is a new payments landscape — where a consumer can earn exclusive, disproportionately valued benefits instantly in ways never before envisioned. This holiday season, consumers will have a second decision to make at the point-of-sale: First, what to purchase; and second, what app to experience with that purchase.”

One example of an experience app comes from Warren Adler, the best-selling author of dozens of books including The War of the Roses, which was made into a popular film. Each time a consumer spends $400, he or she earns one of 29 different Warren Adler ebooks. That may be a $5 to $15 value for the consumer (depending on the price of the eBook), and $2 goes to Adler himself.

Within seconds of qualifying for the purchase, the consumer gets an email with a link to instantly download the book. Adler has also written an exclusive novel for ePlate users. With every earned book, the consumer earns a chapter of the new exclusive work. Any consumer who earns all 29 Warren Adler eBooks also gets a signed physical copy of The War of the Roses delivered to his or her doorstep, said Mullen.

When I saw the ePlate platform, I thought this was an innovative way to engage my fans,” said Adler. “I also wanted to reward them with a unique way to experience more of my books and a way to reward them with an exclusive work.”

Dark Horse Comics has created two new comic book series for ePlate, including one called Conan: The Phantoms of the Black Coast. Another is the team up of three separate characters: X, Ghost, and Captain Midnight. Upper Deck, the trading card company, will introduce a series of collectible cards.

Founded in 2007, Dynamics is a familiar company to readers of VentureBeat. The company debuted at the DEMO conference in September, 2010, and walked away with the top $1 million prize as DEMOgod. In June 2011, Dynamics raised $35 million from Bain Capital Ventures for its computerized smart cards and payment systems. To date, the company has raised $40.7 million. And Mullen appeared at the DEMO Spring 2012 conference in April to unveil the first details of the ePlate payment system. The company has almost 100 employees, up from 24 employees a little more than a year ago.

Consumers can apply for a Dynamics ePlate credit card on the company’s website.

“We are covering all of the categories and will introduce new experiences as we go,” said Mullen. “You’ll see individuals like celebrities, authors, and athletes. We can partner with time-sensitive and seasonal brands. And we can partner with the brands you wouldn’t see on a credit card.”

The apps available now include the following:

Entertainment apps

Big Star Movies (www.dynamlcsinc.com/BigStarMovies)

Bob Mayer (www.dynamlcsinc.com/BobMayer)

Hercules (www.dynamicsinc.com/Hercules)

Katie Armiger (www.dynamicsinc.com/KatieArmiger)

Warren Adler (www.dynamicsinc.com/WarrenAdler)

Hobby Experience apps

Dark Horse Comics (www.dynamicsinc.com/DarkHorseComics)

Jersey Jack Pinball (www.dynamicsinc.com/JerseyJackPinbalL)

Upper Deck (www.dynamicsinc.com/UpperDeckCards)

“For Your Kids” Experience apps

Kidz Bop (www.dynamicsinc.com/KidzBop)

Gaming Experience apps

GameFan (www.dynamicsinc.com/GameFan)

Adventure Shopping Game (www.dynamicsinc.com/AdventureShoppingGame)

Black Friday: The Game (www.dynamicsinc.com/BlackFridayTheGame)

Scavenger Shop Game (www.dynamicsinc.com/ScavengerShop)

Health Experience Applications

Fit Orbit (www.dynamicsinc.com/FitOrbit)

Charity Experience apps

Greater Good: The Animal Rescue Site (www.dynamicsinc.com/AnimalRescueSite)

Greater Good: The Breast Cancer Site (www.dynamicsinc.com/BreastCancerSite)

Lemonade Day (www.dynamicsinc.com/LemonadeDay)

Greater Good: The Hunger Site (www.dynamicsinc.com/TheHungerSite)

Toys for Tots (www.dynamicsinc.com/ToysForTots)

Retail Experience apps

Cologne by Scentiments (www.dynamicsinc.com/CologneByScentiments)

Perfume by Scentiments (www.dynamicsinc.com/PerfumeByScentiments)

Fresh Direct (www.dynamicsinc.com/FreshDirect)

International Star Registry (www.dynamicsinc.com/InternationalStarRegistry)

Food Experience apps

iGourmet: Coffee of the Month (www.dynamicsinc.com/CoffeeOfTheMonth)

iGourmet: Tea of the Month (www.dynamicsinc.com/TeaOfTheMonth)

iGourmet: Salsa of the Month (www.dynamicsinc.com/SalsaOfTheMonth)

Travel Experience apps

Bahama Trip with Triton Submarines (www.dynamicsinc.com/TritonSubmarines)

Henry Cookson: African Safari (www.dynamicsinc.com/HenryCookson)

Social Experience apps

Facebook (www.dynamicsinc.com/Facebook)

Twitter (www.dynamicsinc.com/Twitter)

Other Experience apps

Dynamics Credits (www.dynamicsinc.com/DynamicsCredits)

Win $10,000 (www.dynamicsinc.com/Win10000)

Tomorrow, the Paris-based company that built MasterCard’s PayPass SDK and counts McDonald’s and Reebok among its mobile commerce clients will release the Airtag Kit, a full collection of everything developers need to start building mobile payment apps.

MasterCard’s PayPass technology already enables swipeless credit card use: tap the card on the reader and go. Now the credit card giant, with the help of Airtag, is extending the same technology to NFC-enabled phones.

“The Airtag kit is the second part of our partnership with MasterCard, and contains all of the hardware and software needed to build and test PayPass apps, including resources for the developer community,” Airtag chief executive Jérémie Leroyer, who has moved to the company’s New York offices, told me this morning.

The hardware in the Airtag Kit includes a Samsung Galaxy S III, a USB contactless card reader which simulates an NFC point-of-sale terminal, five SIM cards (UICCs) that include EMV chips similar to those in secure PIN-enabled credit cards, and two demo sales tags to simulate NFC-enabled merchandise. In addition, tutorials, manuals, and forums are available to help developers get started.

Source: Airtag

The Airtag mobile payments developer kit

The kit retails for $4,550, which includes one year of access to the developer program. The developer program alone is $3,250, which suggests the hardware is valued at around $1,300.

With the kit, a developer will be able to create apps for mobile payments incorporating NFC technologies, such as the capability to order online and pick-up in-store without having to use a credit card, or simply payment at point of sale. But at those prices, not every startup will be able to afford one — certainly not on Y Combinator-type money.

Whenever NFC comes up, the inevitable question also arises: What about the iPhone?

“It’s very difficult to guess what is going to be in a new version of the iPhone,” Leroyer said, accurately. “But we didn’t expect NFC in the iPhone 5 … usually what Apple does is let others go into the market, see what they’re doing, and then bring out a version of the technology a year later.”

However, Airtag likes what Apple is doing with Passbook — especially the geofencing — and uses it in the Go McDo product the company built for McDonald’s. NFC does enable better security, Leroyer told me, and the company does expect Apple to add NFC capability in iPhone’s next major iteration.

And he welcomes Apple’s entry into the market:

“NFC is very powerful, but very complex. We need players like Apple to simplify the ecosystem, and simply NFC development. That’s where we want to go, and we share this ambition with MasterCard.”

Some, including Seth Priebatsch, founder of SCVNGR and mobile payments company LevelUp, might say be careful what you wish for.

photo credit: 401(K) 2012 via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Almost all of New York City’s iconic yellow cabs now have a TV in the back seat playing a loop of local news and entertainment. But if innovator Jack Dorsey has his way, those taxi TVs could be replaced with tablet computers that use his company Square’s technology to accept credit card payments.

Square recently met with the Taxi and Limousine Comission, according to CBS, to discuss a pilot program that would put tablet computers into 50 cabs in place of the current Taxi TV system. The company will have an official meeting with the TLC on March 1 to hash out the idea.

As an interesting historical sidenote, Dorsey has been fascinated by urban transportation and dispatch systems since he was a kid. The open source software he designed in high school is still used by many cab companies, and the kernel of his idea for Twitter came from his work on dispatch software for taxis and couriers.

Putting tablets into taxis would allow riders to make purchases during the ride, for example buying movie tickets while driving to the cinema. Square would process the credit card purchase and take a cut. The city hopes introducing Square into the mix will increase competition and drive down processing fees, benefiting both drivers and riders.

Another New York service, Foursquare, has also been mentioned in the press coverage of this initiative. It’s not clear if Foursquare is getting in on the ground floor or is just a relevant hometown example of an app that riders might use while in a taxi.

Having a tablet connected to the web in a taxi does have a lot of risks. How do you keep people from surfing to adult only sites and installing spyware onto the device. What happens when a rider logs into their Gmail and forgets to log out before leaving the cab. These are important details. Still, a tablet is clearly a much more flexible (in the software sense) and interesting platform for creating new and interesting apps that add value to a trip, when compared to a traditional TV.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Researchers are working on an on/off switch for the next generation of credit cards. No, not to stop you from spending money you shouldn’t, but to help protect you from theft and fraud.

Credit cards are moving away from magnetic strips to more modern, no-contact technology. Now, with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips or near-field communication (NFC) cards, you can just wave your credit card in front of a reader to quickly pay for a cup of joe.

However, this ease could open up the doors for a new type of criminal. In theory, shady characters with portable scanners can read the information off your RFID card by getting close enough to you that your card is in their reader’s electromagnetic field. This type of theft hasn’t taken off yet, due to clunky technology and minimal monetary gain (most RFID and NFC cards have low spending caps), but an on/off trick could be a smart preventative step.

Researchers at the Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering are working on a simple new technology that would require customers to place their finger on the card to turn it “on” when they pay. When you place your finger on a specific spot on the card, say a logo or icon, it would complete a circuit and enable readers to charge the card. If the circuit isn’t complete, the card’s NFC or RFID technology would be disabled.

“Our new design integrates an antenna and other electrical circuitry that can be interrupted by a simple switch, like turning off the lights in the home or office,” explains professor Marlin Mickle in a statement. “The RFID or NFC credit card is disabled if left in a pocket or lying on a surface and unreadable by thieves using portable scanners.”

The extra step would take very little time for the customer, and researchers think the technology would be fairly easy and inexpensive for credit card companies to adopt. They recently filed a patent application for the on/off card technology.

Partnering with The Home Depot, PayPal tested its state-of-the-art Touchstone technology in over 51 store locations. Customers are able to pay by just entering their mobile number and PIN or swiping a PayPal credit card at checkout.

“We’ve reached a critical milestone in PayPal History,” said West Stringfellow, PayPal Emerging Opportunities in a press release from eBay. “The Home Depot is our first major stride in bringing the PayPal vision to life.”

PayPal’s expansion into the offline world could mean competition for Visa and MasterCard. Last year, the company boasted over 350 million users, which surpasses the number of credit card holders for both MasterCard and Visa respectively.

PayPal has additional plans to team up with ABJ Software and partner with other “large and mortar retailers” in the months ahead.

Photo via laihiu/Flickr

This week, my Xbox Live account was hacked. This is the story of what happened, my response to it, and the questions about security that it has raised.

The hijack

At twelve minutes past midnight on Tuesday night, just as I was finishing up some work, I received an email to say that I had purchased 6,000 Microsoft Points. My first thought was to laugh it off as spam, as I hadn’t bought any points for months, but I thought I should check my console anyway. On switching on my Xbox, I found that I could no longer access my account.

A quick Google search revealed that other Xbox users had been experiencing similar problems, and I realized that my account had been compromised. I tried to contact Xbox Live support, but its helpline was unhelpfully shut for the night.

Trying to think clearly, despite my somewhat bleary late-night state of mind, I logged into my Microsoft account on my PC, and changed the password. I then went through the process of recovering my Xbox Live account on my console dashboard, which involved entering my Windows Live ID and the new password. On seeing my account again, I was relieved, but also surprised to note that it had been used to play FIFA 12, the popular Electronic Arts soccer game.

The loot

My next move was to contact my credit card provider. The customer service adviser at the bank revealed that there had indeed been a transaction to Xbox Live that night, for £51 (about $80), and they immediately cancelled my card. I was told to phone again once the transaction went through, as it would then be reversed, and dealt with as fraud. Thankfully I use a decent bank and the issue was dealt with quickly and efficiently from that end. I am not sure that every victim of such an attack will be so lucky with their card issuer.

The response

The next morning, I successfully contacted Xbox Live support, explaining in detail what had happened. The adviser confirmed that my account had been used to purchase 6000 Microsoft Points, and intimated that these points had been spent on FIFA 12 Ultimate Team packs. To add insult to injury, it seemed that the hacker had also used up my own, admittedly rather paltry, supply of MS Points during their spending spree.

Confirmation of these Ultimate Team card purchases was found when I checked my console, to find these three new achievements staring back at me:

New Club in Town – 5G – Create your FIFA 12 Ultimate Team club
I’ll Have That One – 10G – Open your first pack in FIFA 12 Ultimate Team
How Great is That? – 20G – Find a team of the week player in an Ultimate Team pack

Quite a kick in the teeth, but hey, at least someone got some pleasure out of those 35G.

The Ultimate Team packs of football cards that were purchased, containing various players that can be used in the game,  are apparently transferable between Xbox Live accounts. This allows a hacker to buy them with a hijacked account and then send them to their own account, for their own purposes. Scouring the internet, it appears that the rarer cards are being traded for cash, through  forums and online auction sites, with some fetching as much as $280 .

I was told by Microsoft Customer Support that my account would be suspended, pending an investigation, which could take between 21 and 30 days to complete. My existing points would apparently be restored once the investigation was complete, and the £51 that had been fraudulently spent would also be refunded (I said this was not necessary, due to the actions being taken by my bank). In the meantime, I would be unable to access my Xbox Live account, and would only be able to play my console offline.

A widespread problem?

Such hacking of Xbox Live accounts, particularly for the purchase of FIFA items, has been widely reported in the past few weeks, both in the specialist and mainstream press. There have also been multiple occurrences of such hacking reported on a variety of websites, including the official Xbox forum and Twitter.

Questions have been asked of Microsoft, as to whether its security is up to scratch, and the response has been that this is not a wider security breach, but rather individual cases of malicious activity.

I approached Microsoft with some questions on this hacking issue, and a spokesman responded with the following statement:

“It is important for us to reconfirm that the Xbox Live service has not been hacked. Some of our customers have been the victims of internet fraud on their accounts. This is a frequent issue that all internet and e-commerce sites and services experience every day. These threats include phishing, brute force attacks, malware, third-party security breaches and in-game scamming / social engineering.

Customers who use the same identity and log-in details across multiple online sites and services are more vulnerable against these everyday internet threats. As ever, we advise customers to be vigilant, and provide further advice on account security across Xbox 360, internet websites and email at www.xbox.com/security.

Of the tens of millions of Xbox Live customers (there are 35 million active members) using the service daily, these issues are affecting a very small percentage of users globally.

Security in the technology industry is an ever-evolving challenge. With each new form of technology designed to deter attacks, the attackers try to find new ways to subvert it. Over time, account security features have been added to help protect our customers’ accounts, and we will continue to add features and processes.

As always, Xbox Live customers who have any queries or concerns should contact Xbox Live Customer Service on 0800 587 1102 [in the UK] or visit www.xbox.com/security.”

So, according to Microsoft, this issue is only affecting a small percentage of global users, but that does not stop it being an issue that raises some pretty big questions, and it is deserving of further investigation.

How is this happening?

The Microsoft statement suggests that these breaches are caused by account details being obtained, via a variety of malicious methods. The nature of Xbox Live is such that an account can be ‘recovered’ on a second console, as long as you have access to the Windows Live ID and password of that user. That results in the account being locked on the original console, as I experienced. With card details being stored on the Microsoft servers, anyone hijacking an account in this way is then able to make purchases on Xbox Live, using the payment card linked to that account.

Why me?

While I cannot dispute that I may have been hacked through some third-party breach, I  would be surprised if that was actually the case. I am pretty careful with my passwords, having four or five that I tend to use for different websites, which I regularly change. I have never responded to a fake ‘phishing’ email and I keep my PC clean, using anti-virus and anti-spyware software.

Looking at other reports of Xbox Live hacking, it is clear that I am not the only one asking this question – a question that remains unanswered.

Pages: 1 2

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Mega credit card company Visa appears to be incredibly impressed with mobile electronic payment startup Square, according to a company blog post.

The post titled “Emerging Payment Types = New Opportunities” starts by spotlighting a recent interview by All Things Digital with Square founder Jack Dorsey and continues by graciously praising the company’s vision as a “big deal.”

Square, founded in 2009, has created a small device which attaches to a mobile device to allow the user to accept credit card payments. Currently, the device can be plugged into a smartphone that uses Apple iOS and Google Android, including the iPad. Getting started seems pretty easy as users are instructed to download the Square app, plug-in the special credit card device to the headphone jack, input the purchase amount, the consumer signs with their finger and that’s it.

So why is Visa stroking the startup’s ego? There could be a couple of reasons. First, Visa may be starting to understand that businesses are continuing to tailor to the mobile consumer. If you want to sell to the mobile consumer, you may have to be mobile. Second, the blog was written by Visa Corporate Relations and might be looking to strike a partnership. Though interestingly, Square is using a Visa card in its demo image (see image above). Enabling purchases to be versatile and available anywhere could greatly increase Visa’s attractiveness to both businesses and consumers.

Lastly, perhaps Visa is looking to get on Square’s radar for an acquisition. A piece of technology like Square’s, along with its millions of dollars in transactions every week as well as signing up 30,000 to 50,000 new merchants a month, could put Visa ahead of the competition. However, competition for these devices is thick, including an iPhone system from well-known payment company VeriFone, as well as potential patent issues, which Square faced even before it officially launched.

Regardless of the reasons for the post, it’s a good sign that Square is making headway with entrenched financial institutions, which is going to be one of the keys to truly mass adoption. With offices in both San Francisco and New York City, the company most recently secured $27.5 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Your phone knows where you are. Why not your bank? Two startups are working in tandem to make that possible.

Finsphere, a company based near Seattle, makes identity-theft protection software and recently announced the launch of PinPoint, an application that helps match credit- or debit-card purchases with a consumer’s cellphone location to help prevent fraud.

PinPoint uses Finsphere’s Mobile Identity Protection (MIP) technology to flag “high risk” transactions. Part of the flagging process requires matching the consumer’s cell phone location with the location of the purchase. The company’s service team then works to resolve the problem by first texting or emailing the user to determine if the purchase is legit.

PinPoint leverages a service offered by Location Labs, a company that helps developers implement location-based services in mobile applications. Its Universal Location Service has an application programming interface that recently gained access to over 250 million consumers from all major cell phone carriers, like Verizon, who have opted in to having their location tracked.

Location Labs has been everywhere lately. The company recently teamed up with location-based ad company Placecast to launch ShopAlerts, which are location-triggered text messages sent from brands to consumers who opt into the service. The company also partnered with CityGrid Media, a subsidiary of Web giant   IAC and supplier of local content and advertising to other sites. The partnership will give Location Labs access to information on more than 15 million local businesses.

Location Labs also is dabbling in creating its own location-based apps. Most recently, the company created Mayor Maker, giving iPhone users the opportunity to automatically check-in to as well as check-out of locations using Foursquare. The application is currently available on iTunes.

Location Labs, a San Francisco-based company, has raised $26 million from venture-capital investors, including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, BlueRun Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures and Intel Capital.

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