Fintech Digest: payment by phone number, ATMs are attacking again, institutionalization of the cryptosphere

Good Friday, Habr. Today in the collection:

• Russia plans to introduce a system of payment for goods using a mobile number;
• ATM robberies are becoming an epidemic;
• Problems in the development of fintech in the Russian Federation;
• The arrival of major players in the cryptosphere.

Payment for goods using a mobile number

Recently it became known that in Russia it is planned to introduce a new service that allows you to pay for goods and services using a mobile phone number. This is a new phase of introducing fast payments - not only in mobile banks, but also in a number of popular applications, including instant messengers.

The service will be developed by the association Fintech, which includes the Central Bank and many large Russian banks. The service will allow Russian citizens to quickly transfer money in a simplified form. Credit organizations will soon test this system in pilot mode.

The Bank of Russia will become the operator of the system of fast payments and at the same time the settlement center.

Whether this approach will compete with Apple Pay / Google Pay / Android Pay, where it is enough just to attach the device to the pinpad, time will tell. While the winning scenario is seen in the case of shops where there are no pinpads, or they are very old. But why be honest? In such places, people are usually used to paying for everything in cash.

At the same time, we will see how the citizens themselves will react to the service from the point of view of security, because many people already had time to take root in their thoughts that “You’ll send this code somewhere and take all the money off.”

New wave of ATM robberies

"Kaspersky Lab" said that in Russia and other countries of Eastern Europe again hacked ATM machines. The amount of damage to banks has not yet been determined, but the extraction of burglars can amount to tens of thousands of US dollars.

The hacker action algorithm is both simple and complex at the same time. The attacker opens the ATM, connects the dispenser to the laptop, closes the ATM and leaves. A laptop with drivers for an ATM dispenser and a patched utility KDIAG acted as a tool for the attack. For the organization of remote access to the system, a USB GPRS-modem is connected.

The scheme is as follows. The first attacker, after successfully connecting a laptop with such software, returns to the ATM and acts as a regular user withdrawing money. From the outside, it looks familiar: a man stands and calmly withdraws money from an ATM. His accomplice at this time using the laptop gives the application command, according to which the ATM gives his friend the required amount. They take money, take their laptop with them, go away.

Finding villains in this case is quite difficult. But again, it is worth considering that any such manipulations with an ATM are possible, if you first physically dig deeper with it, open it up and put third-party pribludy into it. If it happens in the center of the city or in a popular shopping center, the security should somehow respond to this. Plus camcorders at and above ATMs. In general, all such vulnerabilities are highly dependent on the location of a particular ATM and its owner bank.

There are problems with fintech in Russia, but this does not prevent companies

According to experts, in Russia there are serious problems with the development of financial technologies. The main problem is the unattractiveness of the market for external investors, the insufficient solvency of the population and the imperfection of government regulation.

It is to such conclusions that consulting company Deloitte, which previously conducted an online survey and in-depth interviews with representatives of more than 50 Russian FINTECH companies, arrived. The results are presented in the study "Review of the market of financial technologies: world practice."

In general, the development of the industry in the country is slower than planned. But more than half of the survey respondents about the prospects for the development of Fintech in Russia are optimistic. The Bank of Russia plays a big role in the growth of the Fintech market. “This concerns not only part of the regulation, but also the development of strategic decisions for the development of the market,” the study notes.

Institutional players in the cryptosphere

The authors of another study say that the cryptosphere is beginning to develop more actively - all due to the fact that big business comes into play. Speech about institutional players. In some countries, all conditions have been created for the operation of big business, so companies can easily invest in attractive assets.



Nevertheless, this situation is far from being observed everywhere, so that many countries have yet to enter the active phase of the institutional development of the cryptosphere.

In general, the industry continues to operate, despite the high volatility of the cost of the main cryptocurrencies.