The SIMalliance has launched an attack on Host Card Emulation (HCE), claiming it is immature, unstandardised and more vulnerable to malicious attack than deployments of secure element technologies.
Unlike many Near Field Communication (NFC) payment solutions that host payment information on the secure element on the smart device, HCE stores it in the cloud.
HCE has been seen as an easier way to enable mobile payments, with critics of NFC, the legacy method of making payments via a smart device, seen as too costly and difficult for retailers to set up. Earlier this year both Visa and Mastercard launched their own payment-based systems using HCE, with Android also supporting the technology in its latest version of Android, Kitkat.
Speaking following the launch of a paper examining the deployment of secure elements and HCE, Frédéric Vasnier, chairman of the SIMalliance, said while the latter was a force for good within the NFC ecosystem, it was not the complete solution. He said: “It will make NFC more accessible and versatile to developers and help to speed more services to market which, as a result, will drive consumer familiarity and encourage adoption.
“However, service providers evaluating HCE for payment and other high-value NFC services should proceed with caution; HCE presents a new raft of challenges and has the potential to diminish both the transaction security and the end user’s NFC service experience.
“SIMalliance considers HCE to be best suited to lower value applications where stringent security requirements, optimal transaction speeds and always-available functionality are not mandatory.”
Earlier this month, Motorola Solutions argued that handset manufacturers were starting to move away from NFC as its benefits were not being realised. It said NFC was being damaged by Apple’s continued reluctance to implement it in its iPhones, as well as the need to install new infrastructure to enable payments.
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