NFC-Based Payment System Using Smartphones for Public Transport Service

Abstract

This paper presents an implementation of software applications and an infrastructure for payments using NFC compatible Android smartphones. This prototype is suited for, but not limited to, payments in a public transport system. The importance of security in communication plays a significant role, especially when sensitive information and personal data are sent. Therefore, the authors analyze vulnerabilities during throughout communication in order to prevent and detect information leakage points. Each app has specific roles and handles encryption to guarantee security during data transmission. On the other hand, Apache server runs in a secure mode that executes some measures as Unicode coding, limits upload memory, decrease waiting time for connection to prevent attacks. With this in mind, the system has been evaluated to measure its performance and gauge how secure it is. Man in the middle and brute force attacks were run as a result of previous research works that analyzed among different threats in NFC communication and concluded these vulnerabilities could affect its security environment. This paper describes a methodology to implement this system efficiently, covering all security requirements throughout communication between users and the platform to guarantee data protection and gives the results of test vulnerabilities that prove the system resistance.