iPhone 6 Security Features

The first devices to support Apple Pay will be the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus that come with built-in NFC support and Touch ID fingerprint sensor, as well as the Apple Watch (in early 2015), at which point Apple Pay will also work on older iPhones that are compatible with the wearable device, including the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s.

James Anderson, Group Head of Mobile and Emerging Payments at MasterCard, says EMV technology is at the heart of each Apple Pay transaction. Apple Pay – the mobile payment system that will work on the company’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models – will enable users to store credit card information on their phone. “The number itself is bound to the device,” explains McCarthy, “so we know the token should be used by the device only.” In short, if someone hacks into the phone and successfully retrieves your 16-digit token, the hacker won’t be able to use that number to make purchases if they don’t have the phone itself. The other benefit of tokenization is that if you lose your iPhone, you don’t need to get a new credit card – you can simply turn off that token through the “Find My iPhone” tool, says Anderson. When an Apple Pay user taps their iPhone on the terminal, the phone generates a unique string of numbers called a cryptogram. Token Technology Visa’s Jim McCarthy, whose team led the development of the Apple Pay technology, says Apple Pay actually takes EMV one step further thanks to its “tokenization” technology.

How it works? In supporting stores, users will be able to wirelessly pay for goods by approaching their iPhone 6 model or Apple Watch to the payment terminal that supports NFC connectivity, at which point the default credit card will appear on the screen, though the user will be able to choose a different one if needed.

Furthermore, during transactions, instead of the device transmitting card numbers to the receiving terminal, it’ll only send over a Device Account Number for each card and a “transaction-specific dynamic security code.” Moreover, Apple will not store purchases history on any devices or in the cloud, and only provide the user with a recent transactions list for convenience purposes.

On the Apple Watch, a PIN number has to be entered every time the device is removed from the user’s hand – continuous skin contact means the device doesn’t have to be authorized a second time by the user via a PIN security code.

The iPhone and Apple Watch payment solution seems awfully easy to use, with Apple also focusing on shopping privacy and financial security in addition to stupid-simple functionality.