Security Concerns

Going forward, the NFC Forum has identified several key vulnerabilities within the technology. Despite the severely limited physical distances required for successful data transfer using NFC, a few main concerns still remain for security analysts.

• The first and most severe is eavesdropping. Typically, data eavesdropping occurs when the data that is being wirelessly transferred is intercepted by an antenna and relayed to a device outside of the original transaction environment. In the case of purchases and other sensitive data, this can involve the wrong people getting their hands on private financial information, and is a major security issue that must be addressed.
• The second is known as “jamming,” or data modification. This involves an outside device stopping or modifying the data being transferred. And the third is lost property. When an NFC-based device is lost, analysts are concerned about the procedure in which the owner will disable access and authentication to their personal information.

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