Google Wallet - why you shouldn't throw away your wallet just yet

Google has announced, to some fanfare, what it hopes will be a revolution in the way we pay for things: Google Wallet.
Google Wallet is a smartphone app (currently only available for the Nexus S 4G Android phone) that aims to replace your credit cards.
It works like this. You go to a store (let's imagine it's a coffee shop), the barista hands you your steaming skinny caramel macchiato and a toasted onion bagel with low fat cream cheese and bacon, and rather than give them your credit card or reach into your pocket for some coins, you..
* take out your smartphone
* unlock it
* run the Google Wallet app
* enter the PIN for your Google Wallet app
* swipe your smartphone against the coffee shop's pay point.
How convenient!
The Google Wallet app uses NFC (near-field communications) technology in your smartphone to wirelessly debit the credit card you have linked with the application.
Here's a video that Google has produced describing Google Wallet.

Human nature being what it is, some people will be nervous of adopting this kind of technology to pay for goods. Just remember how long it took for some people to switch to using credit cards.
The PIN
It looks like Google recognises that some people will be fearful, and is keen for potential users to know that the Google Wallet app is protected by a four digit PIN.
Unless the PIN is entered, the NFC antenna is switched off - meaning that you can't make any purchases. Similarly when the phone's screen is switched off, the NFC antenna is disabled.
The Google Wallet app insists that you re-enter your PIN every five minutes by default - something that I suspect many users will find irritating, and will change to a longer time period for more convenience and less security.
Another concern I have, though, is whether users will choose sensible PINs to protect their Google Wallet.
When you're waiting to slurp your steaming skinny caramel macchiato and munch on your toasted onion bagel with low fat cream cheese and bacon, will you be entering a PIN code that is convenient or one that is more secure?
Research published earlier this year, revealed the top 10 passcodes that iPhone owners use to protect their devices and we have to assume that Google Wallet users will be just as laissez-faire when choosing a PIN.

We already know that 67% of consumers don't have any form of password on their mobile phones.
It's hard to imagine that all users are going to choose a PIN code for their Google Wallet which is hard to crack, let alone different from the one which they should be using to protect all the rest of their smartphone.
So, if you lose your smartphone and have not chosen a sensible PIN code both for the device and a different one for your Google Wallet then there may be opportunities for criminals to take advantage.
Don't throw away your wallet just yet
I don't want to rain on the parade entirely, however. It's not Google's fault that people might choose dumb obvious PINs or use the same PIN code for their digital wallet as for the device itself (although Google might do some work to reduce the likelihood of those happening, or give an option for longer pass codes).
We may be a long way off throwing away our physical wallets entirely - as folks still like to carry around their receipts, driving license, business cards and some old fashioned bank notes - but we will see mobile devices being used more and more for commerce.
It's going to take some years for merchants to invest in the hardware to provide support for Google Wallet, and some may prefer to wait and see how the market plays out and if a rival option becomes more popular.
Always have a backup
I have one piece of advice though, which will probably hold true for many years to come. Think about this. What happens when your smartphone runs out of juice?
You won't be able to open your Google Wallet app to pay for the late night train ride home if the battery is flat. Then you'll be rueing not having a real credit card in your pocket or a couple of notes hidden in the sole of your shoes.

Google One of Many Victims in SSL Certificate Hack

A Dutch company that issues digital certificates used to authenticate websites said late Tuesday that several dozen other websites in addition to Google have been affected by a security breach.


The company, DigiNotar, issues SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and EVSSL (Extended Validation) certificates, which are validated by Web browsers to ensure people are not visiting a fake website that is trying to appear legitimate.
DigiNotar is what's called a Certificate Authority (CA), an entity that sells digital certificates to legitimate website owners. But DigiNotar issued a digital certificate for the google.com domain, a mistake that could allow a skilled attacker to intercept someone's e-mail.
Google said Monday the fraudulent certificate was used and targeted users in Iran, although a security feature in its Chrome browser detected the certificate, tipping off users with a warning.
DigiNotar, a subsidiary of a security company called Vasco Data Security International, issued a statement on Monday saying it discovered on July 19 during an audit that its infrastructure used to issue the certificates had been breached.
In an interview late Tuesday afternoon, Jochem Binst, corporate communications director for Vasco, said that the attackers created fraudulent certificates for "several dozen" websites. Most were revoked after their discovery, he said.
But the digital certificate for google.com -- which was issued July 10 -- only went live on Sunday, Binst said. In its statement, Vasco said that it was notified by the Dutch Computer Emergency Response Team that it had not been revoked yet. It was finally revoked on Monday, Binst said.
It's not known how attackers breached DigiNotar's certificate-issuing infrastructure or how long they had access, but an audit is under way. "We are in the course of doing an extra audit and those findings will probably be known by the end of the week," Binst said.

DigiNotar is halting sales of digital certificates as it investigates, Binst said. DigiNotar primarily sells its digital certificates to businesses in the Netherlands.
Those businesses will have a hard time over the next few days. Google, Mozilla and Microsoft have revoked or are in the process of revoking DigiNotar's authority to vouch for its certificates. That means that people who go to websites using those certificates will likely see a warning saying the website is untrusted and should not be accessed.
Binst said DigiNotar is contacting its customers. One option to fix the problem is to have those websites switch over certificates issued by the Dutch government, although he could not say which agency would issue those replacement certificates. Another option, Binst said, is to approach the browser makers to make technical changes to honor its certificates.
Binst could not say how many customers DigiNotar has for its digital certificates, but Vasco said in its statement that the subsidiary's revenue from issuing digital certificates was less than €100,000 (US$144,000) for the first six months of this year.

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