A report on October 7, Wednesday showed that Samsung's LoopPay mobile payment system, which is intended to become an Apple Pay rival, had been attacked in a March hack. The hackers of the South Korean tech giant are likely from China, possibly making the case an international and business spying incident.
LoopPay has not reported the hack to authorities. That is due to no consumer or financial data being stolen.
Samsung acquired LoopPay in February. The New York Times reported details of the March cyber-attack, alleging that the payment system's computer network hack by China's Codoso Group was discovered in August, according to Mashable.
The hacking group has been connected to other large-scale attacks, and is allegedly linked to China's government. Their victims have included organizations in industries such as finance and defense, according to Computerworld.
Codoso could have been interested in learning when particular important people made certain purchases. It could reveal their travel history.
Samsung has reported that the security breach did not include its computer network. Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) Darlene Cedres told Mashable that the hack did not put any personal payment user data at risk.
She explained that LoopPay and Samsung Pay have separate computer networks. In addition, the parent company is committed to protecting user data.
Nonetheless, the breach's report had bad timing. The world's biggest smartphone maker launched Samsung Pay in the United States last week.
It appears the hackers wanted to steal details on LoopPay's magnetic secure transmission (MST) tech. Samsung is using it with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to allow mobile payments on old-style stripe card-based payment systems.
Samsung has posted a blog confirming the tight security of the Samsung Pay system. In addition, LoopPay hired two professional security teams to respond to the red alert situation.
LoopPay was founded in 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts.