ValidSoft CEO predicts strong 2012

LONDON, UK: ValidSoft, a global supplier of telecommunications-based fraud prevention solutions, announced CEO Patrick Carroll's outlook for 2012. ValidSoft, a subsidiary of Elephant Talk Communications Corp., is perfectly positioned to capitalize on both key industry trends as well as emerging security threats, said Carroll: "We see 2012 as being a big year for us."

2011 has seen major initiatives and announcements globally around the ongoing exploitation of the mobile phone and smart-phone as a convergence device for payments and banking. M-banking, mobile payments, the mobile wallet and NFC are all technologies where individual entrants and consortiums are fighting for market acceptance, let alone dominance. Whilst competing technologies and strategies abound, the delivery platform remains constant.

A new report by Barclays Corporate, for instance, predicts that consumer spending using mobile devices will jump 15-fold in the next decade, while Gartner foresees more than $429 billion of mobile banking transactions by 2015.

At the same time, 2011 has also seen a large increase in attacks aimed at the mobile phone, including phone-resident Trojans aimed squarely at the smart-phone as well as the relatively new concept of Pseudo Device Theft, including SIM Swap fraud. The latter is already proving to be a potentially huge target for fraudsters, as the rewards on offer are massive.

Card fraud remains a huge problem, with actual losses and the cost of fraud prevention, namely fraud operational costs, lost interchange revenue and disgruntled customers being a major cost item for banks.

These trends mean that payment and banking security technology is more vital than ever. For the expected explosion in the use of mobile devices for banking, payments and wallets to become a reality, a major requirement is that consumers, banks, and retailers have faith that these transactions are safe and secure.