Mastercard to start verifying payments by SELFIE

The card company is testing the new way to pay which involves the customer being asked to look at the screen and blink to confirm their identity and authenticate a payment.

Five hundred people are taking part in the trial which MasterCard chief product security officer Ajay Bhalla says is targeted at youth. 

He told Americans.org that they are working with all mobile phone manufacturers to create the new biometric security method, part of a number of alternatives to PIN numbers being looked at.

Bhalla said: 'The new generation, which is into selfies … I think they’ll find it cool. They’ll embrace it. This seamlessly integrates biometrics into the overall payment experience.'

Customers will be able to use the selfie method or a fingerprint with which to authorise a payment. The company is also looking at voice and heartbeat recognition as an alternative.

However, the problem with these new ways to pay is that they're not as easily revoked as a PIN number, should a fraudster somehow manage to get hold of your details.

Google tried using facial recognition to unlock phones but people quickly realised you could just present a photo of that person in front of the camera to bypass the system. 

Mastercard say that the blinking system ensures that this can't be done.

PIN numbers can easily be changed if a customer notices they have become a victim a victim of fraud which should provide and instant remedy.

However, there are concerns that if a criminal could somehow manage to clone any of the actions required for the new methods, it would be difficult to stop this continuing without disabling the new method altogether.

Ken Munro, security researcher at Pen Test Partners, told the BBC: 'What happens if your facial recognition data gets stolen? You can't change your face.'

The blink test, rather than a simple selfie, is designed to stop hackers from being able to authorise payments with a simple photograph.

And the company says that photos won't be sent directly to the company in case people are sensitive about privacy. Instead, it will be converted into a different format that will be used to authenticate the payment.

(dailymail.co.uk)