Google Wallet

With all of the new technology that is out there to make our lives easier, our personal information is put at high risk.  Google’s new product called “Google Wallet” is an application that you can install on your smart phone to replace the use of credit cards. At first thought it seems like a great idea because now you need to enter in a password in order to use it at a register, but like everything else in the computer/tech world, there is the risk of being hacked.

Like debt cards, there is a four-digit number that you use as a security measure. This is where the flaws in the app lay. Like we looked at in class the other day passwords should be longer because then it is harder for a hacker to gain control of your information. "Knowing that the PIN can only be a 4-digit numeric value, it dawned on us that a brute-force attack would require calculating, at most, 10,000" different variations.

The man who discovered the flaw, Joshua Rubin, in the system had brought it to the attention of Google, “Rubin said he disclosed the vulnerability to Google, which was "extremely responsive" to the issue” but have yet to come out with a new version of the “Google Wallet.”

There hasn’t been an issue with hackers yet on a mass scale, due in part because it isn’t widely popular yet and is only available in the United States. If Google wants this product to continue, then they defiantly have to fix the security of the app. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46332574/ns/technology_and_science-security/