Technavio’s latest report on the global mobile payment security software market provides an analysis on the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook from 2016-2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as a factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline.

Amrita Choudhury, lead analyst from Technavio, specializing in research on IT security sector, says, “Due to the growing instances of theft of confidential financial data, a number of customers are adopting mobile payment security software for mobile devices. This will prevent fraudsters from gaining access to credit and debit card details as the entire payment transaction requires authorization between the merchant's acquirer and issuing bank.”

The top three emerging trends driving the global mobile payment security software market according to Technavio ICTresearch analysts are:

• Introduction of mobile biometrics
• Development of multi-factor authentication
• Increased adoption of multimodal biometrics

Introduction of mobile biometrics

“With an increase in the use of mobile devices for conducting financial and e-commerce transactions, the security of personal data has become a major concern. A number of biometric technologies such as fingerprint recognition, voice recognition, iris recognition, signature recognition, keystroke recognition, and facial recognition are being integrated into mobile devices, which will ensure authorized access to personal data transmitted through wireless networks. It will ensure the security of data and prevent fraudulent activities,” according to Amrita.

In the retail sector, the integration of biometric technologies in mobile devices can be used to recognize registered customers and to bill their credit card or debit account. For instance, mobile biometrics is being used for a number of POS applications to authenticate end-users.

Mobile biometrics is used for banking transactions to authorize individuals. For instance, the Royal Bank of Scotland allows its customers to use Apple's Touch ID fingerprint sensor to log into their bank accounts, which will reduce the chances of fraud.

Development of multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication is a verification technique that uses two or more authentication methods. This acts as an additional security layer and prevents unauthorized access to financial details of customers. Multi-factor authentication solutions incorporate the use of various authentication techniques such as phone-based authentication, smart cards, and biometric technologies to authenticate payment transactions on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. It does not require the installation of any hardware. Fingerprint biometric technology can be used with phone-based authentication and smart card-based authentication to authenticate an individual for mobile payments.

Authentication systems were developed initially to gain access to a particular system. They used various access control mechanisms, which were followed by stand-alone applications with passwords. However, the use of these stand-alone applications was difficult and lacked security as they involved multiple passwords that were open to the public. Advances in technology led to the introduction of many devices such as PDAs, wireless computers, and smartphones, which had access to distributed applications. Technological advances have weakened the process of password authentication, increasing the risks of cyber threats and security attacks.

Increased adoption of multimodal biometrics

“With advances in technology, multimodal biometrics is increasingly used on mobile devices for individual identification and verification. Multimodal biometrics is used for making mobile payments in retail and Payment Card sectors. Multimodal biometrics, which is an integration of a number of biometric technologies such as fingerprint recognition, facial recognition, and voice recognition, can be used to prevent unauthorized access to mobile transactions,” adds Amrita.